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BELL  STREET  CHAPEL  DISCOURSES. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/bellstreetchapelOOspenrich 


BELL  STREET   CHAPEL 
DISCOURSES 


BY 

Anna  Garlin  Spencer 

M 

CONTAINING  SELECTIONS   FROM   THE   WRITINGS   OF 

James  Eddy 


Providence,  Rhode  Island 
1889-1899 


»t/7f 


Printed  by 
Journal  of  Commerce  Co., 
Providence,  R.  I. 


CONTENTS. 


Man's  Ideal  of  God 

Gratitude  and  Trust  in  the  Powers 
Above 

How  Religions  Grow    . 

Reason  in  Religion 

Man's  Freedom  and  Responsibility, 
or  Character  in  Religion 

Fellowship  in  Religion 

Index  to  Quotations  from  Writings 
of  James  Eddy 


PAGES 

1-18 

19-36 

37-55 
57-75 

76-93 
94-1 10 

III 


PREFACE. 


Bell  Street  Chapel  was  dedicated  **  to  God,  to 
Truth,  and  to  all  that  ennobles  Humanity,"  on 
the  first  day  of  December,  1889.  Since  that 
time,  public  worship  free  to  all  has  been  main- 
tained. A  Religious  Society  has  been  formed, 
a  Resident  Minister  chosen,  a  Sunday  School 
established,  and  regular  Sunday  services  have 
been  held  for  ten  months  each  year.  From  time 
to  time  many  noted  preachers  and  lecturers  from 
different  parts  of  the  country  have  addressed  the 
Society.  Week-day  meetings  of  an  educational, 
philanthropic  and  social  character  have  been 
held  from  six  to  eight  months  of  the  year,  with 
growing  influence  in  the  community;  and  many 
civic  enterprises  for  the  betterment  of  the  peo- 
ple have  been  aided  from  this  centre  of  thought 
and  effort.  The  building  and  endowment  were 
the  gift  of  James  Eddy  to  all  who  desire  to  help 
carry  on  the  work  in  the  spirit  of  the  Trust,  of 
which  the  Society  is  the  beneficiary. 

After  ten  years  of  such  life  and  labor,  it  seems 
fitting  to  mark  in  some  signal  manner  the  decade 
milestone.  The  **  Initial  Discourses,"  given  at 
the  Chapel  on  the  Sundays  following  the  Dedi- 
cation, outlining  the  general  purposes  and  ideals 


VIII  PREFACE. 

of  the  movement  then  inaugurated  and  contain- 
ing selections  from  Mr.  Eddy's  writings,  are 
reprinted  and  condensed  in  this  volume,  and 
reaffirm  the  reverent,  rational  and  ethical  devo- 
tion which  is  at  the  heart  of  all  the  Chapel 
activities. 

May  these  discourses  win  a  broader  and  more 
earnest  support  for  the  future  of  the  work  "for 
moral  and  religious  purposes,"  initiated  and 
made  possible  by  the  gift  of  one  man  and  already 
consecrated  and  enlarged  by  the  appreciative 
and  helpful  response  of  many  people. 

Anna  Garlin  Spencer, 
Resident  Minister  and  President  of  the  Religious 
Society  of  Bell  Street  Chapel. 


MAN'S  IDEAL  OF  GOD. 


DO  you  remember  standing  some  time  on  the 
top  of  a  high  foot-hill  in  a  mountain  country? 
Do  you  remember  how  clearly  showed  the  road 
leading  to  its  summit,  when  once  you  had  gained 
its  point  of  view  ?  And  do  you  remember  how 
the  paths  from  it  to  other  foot-hills,  and  from  all 
the  lower  ranges  toward  the  majestic  heights  of 
the  great  mountains,  could  be  traced  by  the  rifts 
in  the  greenness  of  the  wooded  slopes,  until  the 
solitary  peaks  were  all  linked  together  by  the 
tiny  roadways  of  man?  Just  such  a  foot-hill 
summit  is  this  age  of  ours. 

To-day  "we  look  before  and  after,"  we  trace 
the  past  in  its  relation  to  the  present  and  the 
future  as  never  before. 

That  which  more  than  anything  else  will  dis- 
tinguish this  century,  now  drawing  toward  its 
close,  in  future  history  is  the  rise  and  growth  of 
the  scientific  spirit.  And  what  do  we  mean  by 
the  phrase  "scientific  spirit?"  Simply  this:  a 
free  and  fearless  search  for  actual  facts  of  nature 
and  of  human  life;  a  careful  test  of  all  the  re- 
ports concerning  these  facts  of  the  universe 
made  by  man's  observation;  a  cautious  analysis, 


2  MAN  S   IDEAL   OF    GOD. 

classification  and  arrangement  of  each  order  of 
knowledge  gained  from  these  verified  facts  under 
accepted  axioms  or  working  hypotheses.  In  a 
word,  the  crowning  distinction  of  our  age  is  that 
now  thinkers  and  students  are  dealing  with 
things  as  they  really  are,  so  far  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained, without  the  slightest  regard  to  what  any- 
body has  once  thought  things  to  be.  The  eager 
intellect  of  our  time  is  hunting  for  facts,  and 
fitting  facts  together  to  make  certified  knowledge, 
in  all  directions. 

It  is  true  that  this  scientific  spirit  was  in  some 
men  of  the  ancient  world,  notably  Aristotle; 
some  men  whose  towering  thought  make  them 
visible  to  us  across  the  centuries  as  mountain 
peaks  reveal  themselves  across  vast  stretches  of 
level  country;  but  to-day  the  leading  teaching 
and  thought  of  those  not  great  are  shaped,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  by  this  prevailing 
view. 

Hence,  as  I  say,  we  have  reached  an  intellect- 
ual hill-top:  a  point  of  view  whence  we  can  trace 
the  roadways  of  the  pioneering  intellect  of  man 
as  they  wind  over  summits  of  vision,  and  across 
fertile  valleys  of  human  effort,  and  among 
morasses  of  superstition,  and  dark  places  of 
ignorance. 

And  what,  in  brief,  has  been  the  effect  of  this 
rise  and  growth  of  the  scientific  spirit  upon  the 
religious  consciousness  of  man }    At  first  surely 


MAN  S    IDEAL   OF    GOD.  3 

a  deep  disturbance  of  fundamental  faiths ;  or  at 
least  of  mental  conceptions  of  theology  which 
were  so  closely  allied  to  fundamental  faiths  that 
many  mistook  them  for  the  grounds  of  religion 
itself.  Astronomy  gave  us  glimpses  of  the  vast 
reaches  of  the  heavens,  and  directly  it  became 
absurd  to  connect  this  little  planet  with  such  a 
stupendous  tragedy  as  the  death  of  a  "very 
God."  Geology  made  of  the  so-called  Mosaic 
account  of  creation,  so  long  accepted  as  authentic 
history,  a  poetic  fancy  merely.  Biology  made 
of  the  "  fall  of  man  "  so  long  the  centre  of  the 
Christian  system  of  religion  only  a  suggestive 
myth.  While  ethnology,  critical  history,  and 
ethical  science  alike  conspired  to  reduce  the 
dominant  dogma  of  the  atonement  of  an  incarnate 
deity  for  man's  sins  from  a  fact  to  a  suggestive 
allegory. 

As  the  frail  shrines  of  religious  ideals 
crumbled  at  the  touch  of  the  image-breakers, 
the  dogmatists  who  resisted  the  oncoming  influ- 
ence of  the  time,  contested  valiantly  every  inch 
of  ground,  while  the  wounded  sensibilities  of 
affection  cried  out  at  every  step  "  spare  me  this 
object  of  devotion." 

I  am  wrong  to  speak  as  if  all  this  was  of  the 
past :  to-day  the  struggle,  so  happily  over  for 
many  of  us,  is  but  just  beginning  in  numberless 
hearts  and  minds  :  aye,  is  yet  to  be  awakened  in 
countless  sluggish  or  timid  natures.     To  most 


4  MAN  S    IDEAL    OF    GOD. 

thoughtful  people,  however,  whether  or  not 
logically  worked  out  to  the  giving  up  of  old 
theologic  systems  and  old  phrasings  of  truth,  the 
emphasis  of  religious,  as  of  other  theories  and 
beliefs,  is  upon  the  reasonable,  the  universal, 
and  the  natural,  rather  than  as  of  old  upon  the 
dogmatic,  the  partial  and  the  supernatural. 

Meanwhile  the  new  method  of  enquiry  has 
pressed  closer  toward  the  inner  citadels  of  old 
beliefs.  The  outer  details  of  literal  readings  of 
scripture  texts,  the  literal  following  of  creedal 
statements,  and  the  narrow  partisanship  of 
denominational  allegiance,  have  been  surrendered 
by  most  of  the  more  intelligent  of  all  sects  of 
Christendom ;  often  with  utter  unconsciousness 
of  any  change  in  their  outlook.  But  the  relent- 
less logic  of  the  scientific  method  once  accepted, 
there  is  no  chance  for  "halt"  until  everything  in 
the  universe  and  in  the  consciousness  of  man 
has  come  under  the  dissecting  knife  of  analysis. 
And  of  late  years  the  cry  has  gone  up,  not  alone 
from  the  timid  and  the  thoughtless,  but  from 
many  most  profound  and  earnest  natures, 
"Behold  the  integrity  of  the  human  soul  is 
assailed !  The  immortal  Hope  is  destroyed  I 
Even  the  God  in  whom  we  trusted  as  the  Father 
of  our  spirits.  He  is  pushed  from  his  throne 
within  our  hearts  into  the  limitless  spaces  of  the 
universe,  and  we  are  orphaned  in  a  world  of 
struggle  and  of  sorrow." 


man's  ideal  of  god.  5 

How  many  of  us  remember  to-day,  with 
twinges  of  pain  from  the  old  wound,  the  hour 
when  first  the  extremest  implications  of  modern 
scientific  thought  burst  upon  our  terrified  con- 
sciousness. How  the  once  solid  rock  of  our 
inherited  faiths  crumbled  beneath  our  feet. 
How  desolate  we  stood  in  the  pitiless  noonday 
glare  of  an  inquisition  which  spared  no  tender 
feeling,  and  seemed  to  threaten  all  that  we  had 
called  by  the  name  of  "  Spirit." 

But  to  as  many  of  us  as  met  that  terrible  hour 
with  simple  fidelity  to  truth,  it  marks  in  our 
memory  not  only  a  new  era  in  our  intellectual 
growth,  but  a  glad  rebaptism  of  our  faith  in  the 
eternal  verities.  For  they  know,  perhaps  best 
of  all,  they  who  have  borne  the  fiery  heat  of 
such  a  struggle,  that  whosoever  becomes  patient 
outcast  and  willing  slave  for  Truth's  sake,  learns 
that  Truth  and  Righteousness  and  Love  are 
One,  that  "  One  in  whom  man  lives,  and  moves, 
and  has  his  being." 

"  They  bade  me  cast  my  doubt  away, 

They  pointed  to  my  hands  all  bleeding, 
They  listened  not  to  all  my  pleading; 

The  thing  I  meant  I  could  not  say; 

I  knew  that  I  should  rue  the  day 

If  once  I  cast  that  doubt  away. 

*'  I  grasped  it  firm  and  bore  the  pain; 

The  thorny  husks  I  stripped  and  scattered; 


O  MAN  S    IDEAL    OF    GOD. 

If  I  could  reach  its  heart,  what  mattered 
If  other  men  saw  not  my  gain 
Or  even  if  I  should  be  slain? 
I  knew  the  risks :   I  chose  the  pain. 

"  O,  had  I  cast  that  doubt  away 

I  had  not  found  what  most  I  cherish, 
A  faith  without  which  I  should  perish, — 
The  faith  which,  like  a  kernel,  lay 
Hid  in  the  husks  which  on  that  day 
My  instinct  would  not  throw  away  !  " 

The  personal  struggle,  however,  but  epitomizes 
the  world  movements.  To-day  we  see  that  same 
fidelity  to  truth  which  in  so  many  single  lives 
has  brought  a  higher  faith,  bringing  to  the  general 
belief  the  same  reward.  To-day  we  mark  on  all 
sides,  from  the  specialists  of  science  as  well  as 
from  the  philosophic  leaders,  a  tendency  toward 
such  a  restatement  of  the  philosophy  of  the 
universe  as  harmonizes  with  the  essentials  of  all 
religious  faith.  The  faith  in  God  as  the  One^ 
distinct  from,  yet  immanent  in,  all  nature,  this 
fundamental  postulate  of  worship,  Herbert 
Spencer  himself  reaffirms  when  he  talks  of 
"  Eternal  Energy,"  and  begins  the  words  with 
the  capital  letters  which  indicate  entity,  while 
other  high  thinkers  not  a  few,  enlarge  and 
elaborate  the  hints  of  science  into  a  system  of 
scientific  theism.  However  impersonalized,  in 
the  old  sense  of  the  word,  may  have  become 
man's  Ideal  of  God,  that  Ideal  still  persists; 


man's  ideal  of  god.  7 

and  just  now  is  reinforced,  with  a  power  of  logic, 
and  a  confident  appeal  to  science  itself,  not 
known  before.  Faith  in  the  One  in  All  is  not 
only  left  intact,  it  is  deepened  and  greatened, 
so  that  to-day  the  conceptions  of  common  minds 
may  easily  mount  to  the  poetic  imaginings  of  the 
seers  of  all  times. 

And  if  the  faith  in  man  as  a  spiritual  entity 
(as  something  more  and  other  than  a  functional 
flower  upon  the  great  tree  of  life),  if  this  faith, 
which  has  been  supposed,  at  least,  an  essential  of 
the  highest  form  of  moral  responsibility,  is  not  yet 
reinforced  by  the  later  science,  it  is  at  least  not 
invalidated.  The  persistence  of  the  individuality 
of  a  human  being  through  the  widest  range  of 
structural  change  testifies  pretty  strongly  of 
something  in  man  which  no  scalpel  discovers 
and  no  physical  fact  explains.  Those  few  great 
prophets  of  the  soul  like  Emerson,  who  kept  the 
faith  when  the  multitude  knew  not  that  it  was 
assailed,  have  been  lately  hailed  chiefs  by  the 
main  army  of  religious  leadership. 

And  it  is  curious  and  interesting  to  us,  who 
seek  to  set  before  you  the  more  important 
elements  of  Mr.  Eddy's  thought  upon  these 
great  themes,  to  trace  his  course  along  these 
world  currents  of  change.  I  will  now  give  you, 
in  a  selected  and  arranged  portion  of  his  manu- 
scripts, the  outline  of  his  philosophical  conception 
of  the  universe  and  of  its  Source. 


8  man's  ideal  of  god. 

"Much  time  has  been  spent  by  the  human 
mind  in  the  endeavor  to  conceive  of  the  beginning 
of  things.  And  a  harmony  of  conclusion  seems 
now  to  be  arrived  at,  viz.:  that  man  is  not  con- 
stituted in  mind,  body  or  senses  to  comprehend 
a  beginning  or  origin  of  the  least  particle  of 
matter  or  of  what  we  call  mind :  and  we  may 
safely  say  will  never  be.  To  be  in  accord  with 
human  reason  there  must  always  exist  an  a 
priori  to  all  thought-of  beginnings.  It  would 
seem  wiser,  therefore,  to  leave  the  problem  of 
creation  and  pass  on  to  the  consideration  of 
questions  within  the  scope  of  human  intelligence. 

"We  perceive  that  organizations  exist  com- 
bining mind  and  matter  or  intelligence  and 
phenomena. 

"What  we  term  spirit,  or  mind,  is  always 
invisible  to  the  human  senses.  No  man  ever 
saw  the  mind  of  another  man  nor  the  mind  of 
any  living  creature.  The  moving  power  and 
character  of  mind  is  known  only  by  manifesta- 
tions or  phenomena.  So  of  the  mentality  of  the 
Power  above  the  human  mind,  it  is  hidden  and 
invisible  to  the  human  senses :  but  not  so  its 
manifestations,  since  the  phenomena  of  nature 
all  indicate  an  interior  Intelligence,  a  great  Mind 
in  all  things. 

"This  intermingling  of  mind  and  matter  is 
certainly  a  great  mystery  ;  perhaps  next  to  the 
crowning  mystery   of   the    primal  origin  of  all 


man's  ideal  of  god.  9 

things.  But  in  spite  of  the  unfathomable  mys- 
teries in  which  we  are  immersed,  we  do  know  so 
much  of  the  orderings  of  nature,  of  the  wise 
guiding  principles  or  laws  of  growth  revealed 
through  phenomena,  that  we  may  surely  perceive 
the  goodness  and  the  power  of  some  great  Mind 
above  the  human.  And  we  are  constantly  on 
the  road,  as  experience  develops  us,  toward  the 
acquisition  of  more  knowledge  in  all  our  relations 
with  nature,  with  each  other,  and  in  our  relations 
with  the  great  mind  of  all  substance  which  we 
call  God. 

"  Man  finds  on  his  advent  upon  earth  certain 
invariable  laws  in  operation,  which,  on  examina- 
tion, he  realizes  were  necessary  to  his  birth  and 
existence.  He  finds  in  nature,  from  the  minutest 
lichen  upon  the  rock  up  through  the  animal 
kingdom  to  man,  the  highest  manifestation  of 
life,  that  all  grades  of  being  are  under  the  opera- 
tion of  these  laws.  And  since  man  cannot 
conceive  of  a  First  Cause,  the  human  reason  is 
forced  to  fall  back  upon  these  laws  as  the  agency 
of  revelation  of  God's  nature  and  character. 
Would  you  know  the  character  of  a  man }  Sum 
up  the  phenomena  of  words  and  deeds  he  mani- 
fests through  life  and  you  find  the  sum  total  is 
the  man  himself.  We  find  phenomena  in  the 
universe  indicating  a  Supreme  Mind  and  Char- 
acter. And  although  we  cannot  idealize  even 
the  Primal  Power,  we  can  comprehend,  in  a  man- 


10  MAN  S    IDEAL    OF    GOD. 

ner,  the  character  of  the  God  these  phenomena 
reveal. 

"Man  is  the  flower  of  all  the  phenomena 
manifested  in  this  world.  And  since  our  finite 
and  invisible  minds  are  manifested  to  others  by 
our  works,  we  must  believe  that  in  the  God-Mind 
of  the  universe  is  combined,  speaking  humanly, 
all  that  is  noble  and  manly  in  man,  united  to  all 
that  is  sweet  and  lovely  in  woman.  Hence  we 
may  say  that  the  noblest  men  and  the  noblest 
women  are  faint  types  of  the  character  of  God, 
and  reveal  that  character  to  our  comprehension. 

"  We  are  justified  in  believing  in  the  existence 
of  invisible  mental  Power  above  the  human, 
most  of  all,  because  man  himself  has  the  power 
to  plan  in  the  secrecy  of  his  own  mind,  and  can 
exert  influence  over  both  substance  and  mind  in 
a  similar  manner.  And  we  are  able  to  personify 
a  casual  Power,  because  the  qualities  of  intelli- 
gence and  of  goodness  are  faintly  but  distinctly 
typified  in  the  personalities  of  the  human  race  ! 

"  Let  us  be  voluntarily  grateful  to  that  Life- 
giving  and  Life  -  sustaining  Power  which  is 
revealed  by  nature  and  by  human  experience ! 
To  be  religious,  as  I  understand  it,  is  to  ascertain 
by  careful  study  of  the  phenomena  of  nature 
and  of  human  experience  the  character  of  the 
Power  above  humanity.  Whom  we  call  God : 
then  to  study  ourselves  and  our  relations  to  God 
and   to  each   other.     Then   will    come   in   our 


MAN  S    IDEAL    OF    GOD.  1 1 

religious  obligations,  which  consist  of  the  con- 
scientious performance  of  our  duties  in  our 
relations  with  God  and  of  all  duties  in  our  rela- 
tions with  each  other.  To  honestly  perform 
these  duties  is  all  that  could  be  expected  of  us 
by  any  Power  above  us ;  and  the  sincere  per- 
formance of  duty  will  enable  us  to  become 
intelligent  and  good.  Let  us  begin  now  the  work 
of  perfecting  ourselves ;  for  in  this  way  shall  we 
best  perform  the  duty  of  the  hour,  which  is  to 
know  God  and  ourselves. 

"The  error  of  all  who  sustain  the  popular 
religious  systems  of  our  day  is  that  they  oppose 
this  divine  law  of  progress  and  change.  Chris- 
tian theologians  admit  that  the  increase  of 
knowledge,  through  experience,  gives  humanity 
progress  in  all  things  outside  of  religious  creeds ; 
but  they  believe,  with  more  or  less  of  sincerity, 
that  in  those  narrow  creeds  is  concreted  all  of 
truth  respecting  God,  and  man's  relations  with 
God,  which  it  is  necessary  for  man  to  know. 
But  *a  change  is  coming  over  the  spirit  of  their 
dream.'  Faiths  and  creeds  hitherto  held  too 
sacred  to  justify  examination,  are  now  being 
submitted  to  the  investigation  of  common  sense 
thinkers,  who  criticise  them  with  a  hardihood 
wounding  perhaps  to  the  sensibilities  of  many, 
who  perceive  with  fear  that  *  old  things  are  pass- 
ing away  and  all  are  becoming  new.'  This  change 
and  dissolution  of  old  ideas  is,  I  think,  inevitable. 


12  MAN  S    IDEAL    OF    GOD. 

One  modification  of  accepted  truth  leads  to  an- 
other. But  to  me  this  means  progress.  I  have 
placed  on  a  panel  of  a  door  in  Bell  St.  Chapel 
these  words,  ^Many  beliefs  of  to-day  will  become 
the  heathenisms  of  the  future.'  The  same 
power  of  truth  and  of  reason  which  casts  from 
their  pedestals  our  old  faiths,  will  place  a  truer 
God  in  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  intelligent  and 
good.  From  our  knowledge  of  the  character  of 
the  most  perfect  specimens  of  human  kind  it 
has  become  impossible  for  many  to  believe  in 
the  existence  of  a  God  with  a  character  such  as 
the  popular  creeds  of  Christianity  ascribe  to 
Him;  since  that  character  is  represented  by 
those  creeds  to  be  inferior  to  our  best  men  and 
women  in  a  moral  point  of  view.  In  the  abstract 
all  Christian  believers  declare  that  God  is  wise 
and  good ;  and  they  meet  in  fine  churches,  no 
doubt  with  the  honest  intent  to  worship  and 
honor  God.  But  the  tendency  of  much  which 
they  teach  is  to  prove  that  God  is  not  wise  and 
good ;  since  they  teach  that  He  will  torture 
forever  an  honest  unbeliever ;  and  that  He  finds 
it  necessary,  in  establishing  a  Divine  Revelation, 
to  break  His  own  laws  ! 

"I  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  in  this 
criticism  of  Christian  dogmas  I  do  not  impugn 
the  sincerity  of  Christians.  Many,  perhaps 
most  of  them,  have  a  higher  practical  standard 
of  morality  than  is  justified  by  the  character  of 


man's  ideal  of  god.  13 

the  God  they  profess  to  imitate  and  worship. 
And  to  the  liberal  minded  I  would  suggest  that 
if  it  were  possible  to  close  all  churches  wherein 
systems  of  error  are  taught,  such  a  course  would 
not  be  desirable.  In  all  natural  processes,  which 
are  divine,  changes  are  slow,  and  in  consequence 
more  sure.  What  we  want  to  begin  with  is 
toleration  toward  each  other. 

"  All  popular  religions  which  now  prevail  upon 
the  earth,  including  Christianity,  were  founded 
in  superstition  and  error.  And  in  the  Christian, 
as  in  other  religious  systems,  some  changes  are 
absolutely  necessary  to  fit  it  to  our  present 
conceptions  of  truth. 

"  Poor  human  nature  requires  a  God  that  it  can 
look  up  to  :  One  Who  possesses  intelligence  and 
goodness  superior,  not  inferior,  to  the  best  of 
men !  Let  us  from  now  on  consecrate  our 
church  edifices,  and  our  own  minds  and  hearts,  to 
a  God  whom  we  recognize  as  above  our  highest 
human  standard ;  One  whom  we  can  love  and 
honor  with  our  own  free  will ;  for  this  would 
enable  us  to  consider  the  performance  of  our 
religious  and  moral  duties  the  greatest  privilege 
of  life ! 

"And  now  what  the  writer  of  these  lines 
desires  above  all  things  is  to  assist  in  founding 
and  building  up  a  religious  society  which  shall 
be  guided  by  the  highest  principles  of  truth  and 
right  which  the  mind  of  our  day  can  conceive. 


14  MAN  S   IDEAL   OF    GOD. 

He  aspires,  by  che  aid  of  those  who  may  sympa- 
thize with  and  appreciate  his  views,  to  initiate  a 
church  service  which  shall  be  modified  in  im- 
portant respects  from  the  old  liturgies.  Believing 
in  the  existence  of  a  paternal  Power  he  believes 
that  we  should  strive  to  comprehend  His  char- 
acter ;  and  that  this  knowledge  of  God  joined  to 
a  knowledge  of  ourselves,  will  enable  us  to 
understand  our  true  relations  with  God  and  with 
each  other.  Then  will  be  enlisted  our  conscience, 
our  sense  of  duty,  our  dignity  of  character,  and 
our  most  noble  emotions  to  help  us  perform  all 
the  duties  growing  out  of  these  relations  with 
our  Divine  Father  and  with  our  brother  man  ! 

"  We  believe  in  God ;  in  humility;  in  gratitude  ; 
and  in  obedience  to  His  laws.  The  intelligent 
and  good  live  near  to  God.  All  scientific  truth 
is  knowledge  of  God  and  His  ways  of  wisdom 
and  kindness. 

"  May  we  all  live  nearer  and  ever  nearer  to 
God ! " 

Closing  thus  our  quotations  from  Mr.  Eddy's 
writings,  we  note  how  true  ran  the  course  of  his 
single  experience  to  the  line  of  the  great 
thought  -  tendencies  of  which  it  was  a  part. 
Working  out  as  he  did,  for  himself,  the  great 
problems  of  religious  belief,  his  convictions 
assumed  to  his  apprehension  the  force  and  the 
importance  of  original  discoveries.  And  his 
conclusions   were  and  are    both   forceful   and 


MANS    IDEAL    OF    GOD.  1 5 

important.  Not  alone  or  chiefly  because  they 
have  the  somewhat  unique  value  of  the  testimony 
of  a  clear-headed  practical  man  of  affairs  upon 
themes  generally  treated  by  scholars, — although 
this  is  an  aspect  not  to  be  ignored — but  because 
he  reached  by  independent  methods  of  investi- 
gation conclusions  which  coincide  in  their  most 
essential  particulars  with  those  of  many  of  the 
world's  thinkers  of  all  times. 

The  religious  need  of  any  time  is  its  vital 
need.  And  to-day  the  great  religious  need  is  on 
the  one  hand  for  a  religion  of  essentials  stripped 
of  the  veiling,  transient  robes  of  outgrown 
creeds  and  traditions :  and  on  the  other  hand 
for  a  revival  of  the  religious  spirit  itself :  for  a 
genuine  faith  that  it  profiteth  a  man  nothing  to 
gain  the  whole  world  if  thereby  he  lose  his  own 
soul  of  aspiration  and  of  righteousness  ! 

The  cry  goes  up  to-day  from  disturbed  minds 
and  burdened  hearts,  "Show  us  the  Father!" 
Not  the  partial  monarch  mindful  of  his  own 
glory  ;  but  the  tender  Heart  **  that  is  mindful  of 
all  his  own."  Not  the  jealous  despot  who 
reserves  ingenious  tortures  for  those  who  have 
offended  him ;  but  He,  the  merciful,  who  "  re- 
moveth  our  transgressions  from  us."  Not  the 
fickle  and  childish  sovereign  who  repents  him 
of  past  kindnesses  and  recklessly  disturbs  the 
regular  order  of  events  to  display  his  power,  but 
"He  with  whom    is   no  variableness,   neither 


i6  man's  ideal  of  god. 

shadow  of  turning,"  whose  glory  the  steadfast 
heavens  declare.  Not  he,  the  big  man,  who 
stands  without  his  creation,  turning  the  wheels 
of  a  mechanical  universe  ;  but  He  the  Immanent 
life  of  all  that  is,  the  Soul  of  Nature,  Who  sleeps 
in  the  stone,  flutters  in  the  winged  bird,  blos- 
soms in  the  flower  and  creeps  upward,  as  "  the 
ages  rise  and  cluster,"  through  animal  to  man, 
in  whom  He  forever  "maketh  for  righteousness." 

' '  God  of  the  granite  and  the  rose ! 

Soul  of  the  sparrow  and  the  bee ! 
The  mighty  tide  of  being  flows 

Through  countless  channels,  Lord,  from  Thee. 
It  leaps  to  life  in  grass  and  flowers  ; 

Through  every  grade  of  being  runs  ; 
Till  from  creation's  radient  towers 

Its  glory  flames  in  stars  and  suns." 

By  thought  and  by  experience  alike  men  and 
women  have  climbed  upon  such  mounts  of 
vision  to-day  that  they  realize  as  never  before 
that  God  is  Spirit,  and  must  be  worshipped  in 
spirit,  not  with  forms  or  symbols  or  childish  idol- 
creeds. 

And  in  the  light  of  this  thought  how  worse 
than  foolish,  how  hurting  to  the  true  faith 
which  is  at  the  heart  of  religion,  seem  the  hair- 
splitting differences,  the  quarrels  over  vestments, 
and  statements,  and  sacraments,  and  traditions ! 
How  small  the  bickerings  which  divide  the 
church  of  God  into  contending  factions  !     How 


MAN  S    IDEAL    OF    GOD.  17 

suicidal  seems  the  sectarian's  bigotry,  in  a  world 
where  little  children  are  born  to  wretchedness 
and  sin,  where  strong  men  fail  because  of  sick- 
ness and  death,  where  struggle  and  toil  and 
sorrow  are  ever  calling  for  succor  and  for  help  ! 
"Verily,"  saith  Jesus  of  old,  ''not  he  that  crieth 
Lord,  Lord,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My 
Father  "  is  the  true  annointed. 

The  wave  of  changing  thought  which  has 
passed  over  our  age  has  left  unchanged  the  root 
elements  of  human  nature.  It  makes  small 
difference  whether  we  call  God  by  this  name,  or 
that,  or  in  self-distrustful  reverence  hold  our- 
selves dumb  before  His  presence.  We  want,  as 
all  men  and  women  in  all  times  have  wanted, 
more  than  we  want  anything  else,  to  feel  some 
**  peace  of  trust  which  passeth  understanding." 
When  life  grows  difficult,  when  trouble  disturbs 
youth's  joyousness,  when  sin  appals,  when 
cowardice  hinders,  when  temptation  assails, 
when  the  loved  dead  answer  not  again,  when 
friends  misunderstand,  and  the  world  seems  at 
odds  with  our  ideal,  then  we  would  escape  from 
the  seen  and  temporal  into  the  unseen  and  eternal 
Perfection, 

And  not  in  weakness  or  in  sorrow  alone  do  we 
need  strong  faith  in  the  One  in  All.  We  are 
sketched  on  a  large  pattern,  we  incomplete  and 
imperfect  mortals.  Nothing  contents  either 
thought  or  feeling  but  the  Infinite, 


i8  man's  ideal  of  god. 

We  are  haunted  in  the  heights  as  in  the  depths 
of  our  natures  by  visions  which  allure  to  endless 
aspiration.  That  "  Something  deeply  interfused  " 
in  nature,  which  calms  our  trembling  nerves  and 
steadies  our  feverish  pulses,  witnesseth  to  the 
"  central  peace  at  the  heart  of  endless  agitation." 
That  leap  of  the  exultant  mind  when  a  new 
truth  is  revealed,  is  evidence  that  we  are  of  one 
substance  with  the  Eternal  Energy  and  can 
"think  God's  thought  after  him." 

The  deep  religious  need  of  our  time  is  that  we 
free  this  permanent  spirit  of  religion  from  all 
that  dwarfs  and  hinders  it ;  that  we  in  sincerity 
and  courage  declare  the  new  readings  upon  the 
scroll  of  time  ;  and  above  all,  that  we  translate 
the  old  comfort,  the  old  call  to  righteousness, 
the  old  God-ward  search,  in  terms  of  the  newer 
thought. 

And  if  this  little  movement  here  be  only  the 
frailest  and  humblest  of  efforts  in  this  direction 
it  has  the  high  sanction  of  most  holy  use ! 


GRATITUDE 


Trust  in  the  Powers  Above. 


"\1/E  believe  in  God,"  says  Mr.  Eddy,  "and 
'  '  in  gratitude.  Our  truest  relations  with 
God  ask  from  us  humility,  gratitude  and  love. 
The  purest  and  sweetest  essence  of  true  Religion 
lies  in  its  confiding  simplicity  of  character." 
And  again  he  said  in  words  dictated  only  a 
week  before  he  died,  "  Man's  true  worship  is 
gratitude  and  love  for  the  gift  of  life  and  all 
that  we  receive.  Let  us  be  voluntarily  grateful 
to  God;  there  is  no  higher  duty  nor  higher 
motive  than  gratitude  for  obeying  the  behests 
of  a  pure  religion  and  morality. 

"  Life  is  a  free  gift  to  man,  from  a  higher 
power  existing  antecedent  to  man's  advent  to 
this  world.  So  we  are  of  divine  origin !  Life  is 
costless  to  us,  but  priceless.  There  is  no  doubt 
of  the  unequal  value  of  life  to  babes  who  receive 
it ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that  the  parents  them- 
selves create  or  furnish  the  conditions  of  health 
and  well-being,  or  otherwise,  under  which  we  are 


20  GRATITUDE    AND    TRUST. 

born.  The  power,  the  gift  of  life  is  from  God ;  the 
conditions  under  which  we  are  born  are  created 
by  man,  and  appertain  to  his  liberty  of  will. 

"To  be  grateful  for  favors  received  from  others 
is  natural  and  sensible ;  and  when  we  can  make 
no  return  for  favors  received  then  is  our  grati- 
tude enhanced.  Wholly  do  we  stand  in  this 
light  toward  God,  the  author  of  our  existence; 
for  we  can  render  no  equivalent  for  all  we  receive 
from  his  power  and  goodness.  The  best  and 
most  acceptable  return  we  can  make  to  God  is 
to  enjoy  life  rationally  and  fully;  which  would 
harmonize  with  God's  will  and  intent  toward  us. 
Gratitude,  like  other  good  sentiments  of  our 
minds,  should  be  cultivated.  A  study  of  our 
relations  to  each  other  teaches  us  that  parents, 
children,  brothers  and  sisters,  husbands  and 
wives,  have  mutual  natural  claims  upon  each 
other  to  be  unselfish.  This  inspires  gratitude, 
and  a  mutual  disposition  to  make  returns  where 
it  is  possible.  And  where  it  is  not  possible  to 
give  equivalents  for  favors  received,  there  is  one 
return  which  in  justice  should  be  made,  and  that 
is  gratitude.  And  ingratitude  toward  those  from 
whom  we  have  received  disinterested  favors  has 
always  been  considered  a  crime.  But  God  has 
a  character  so  noble  that  the  persistent  force  of 
his  love  is  not  affected  either  by  gratitude  or 
ingratitude.  From  the  character  of  God  we 
get   the   idea  that  'virtue  is   its  own   reward.' 


GRATITUDE    AND   TRUST.  21 

God  being  personally  invisible,  he  acts  through 
proxies  or  agents.  On  a  panel  of  a  door  in  Bell 
Street  Chapel  I  have  caused  to  be  inscribed 
these  words,  'The  infant  smiles  not  upon  its 
mother,  but  God  smiles  through  the  infant.' 
Now,  by  the  power  of  our  hearts  to  feel,  by  the 
power  of  our  minds  to  perceive,  we  will  love  our 
mothers,  children,  and  all  our  near  and  dear 
relations,  because  such  is  the  will  of  God.  But 
let  us  acknowledge  that  our  deepest  love,  honor 
and  gratitude  are  due  to  that  divine  Power,  the 
giver  of  life  and  of  all  well-being,  who  is  behind 
all  and  in  all  that  we  esteem  as  the  most  pre- 
cious in  life. 

*♦  God  does  not  require  this  worship.  God  has 
no  need  of  the  praise,  homage,  love  or  gratitude 
of  man.  But  man  has  great  need  of  exercising 
all  these  sentiments  towards  God.  With  an  in- 
telligent and  just  man  the  cherishing  and  the 
expression  of  these  sentiments  is  a  necessity; 
a  demand  of  conscience.  The  exquisite  satis- 
faction we  derive  from  them  constitutes  our 
highest  privilege  of  experience.  And  it  is 
reasonable  to  conclude  that  since  the  highest 
happiness  and  well-being  of  man,  and  of  all 
created  beings,  is  the  end  and  aim  of  the  activi- 
ties of  the  high  power  above  man,  so  the  free 
expression  of  gratitude  from  man  toward  this 
high  power  should  give  satisfaction  to  the  great 
mind  and  heart  of  God  himself.     He  could  not 


22  GRATITUDE    AND   TRUST. 

feel  such  satisfaction,  however,  if  he  required  of 
us  any  exercise  of  worship ;  for  this  requirement 
would  be  derogatory  both  to  his  dignity  and  to 
ours. 

"  No  man  that  respects  himself  would  beg  to 
be  praised  or  honored,  however  praiseworthy  or 
honorable  he  might  be.  Conscious  of  his  own 
integrity  he  would  let  his  character  speak  for 
itself  in  his  acts.  If  he  were  not  appreciated, 
he  would  exercise  the  virtue  of  modesty,  and 
wait  patiently  until  the  distinction  and  honor 
due  him  should  be  voluntarily  paid.  Now  in 
regard  to  the  God  of  wisdom  and  beneficence, 
we  may  be  sure  that  his  dignity  and  self-respect 
are  not  less  than  that  of  a  good  and  intelligent 
man  in  this  particular.  No  equivalent  for  a  gift 
can  be  properly  required  from  the  parties  bene- 
fited; all  return  must  be  voluntary  on  the  part 
of  recipients;  but  there  exists  in  the  human 
mind  a  sense  of  justice,  a  feeling  that  there 
should  be  some  recognition  of  favors  bestowed. 
If  ingratitude  is  a  crime,  the  feeling  and  ex- 
pression of  gratitude  is  a  simple  duty.  Grateful 
feelings  should  be  as  common  as  favors  received ; 
but  a  high-minded,  good  man  will  not  withhold 
favors  and  charity  because  of  the  lack  of  thanks 
or  gratitude  from  the  recipients.  And  in  the 
laws  of  God,  while  all  crimes  against  our  fellow- 
men  are  punished  with  unpleasant  effects  with 
reformatory  intents,  for  ingratitude  to  God,  who 


GRATITUDE    AND   TRUST.  2$ 

is  the  real  author  of  our  existence  and  of  all  the 
blessings  comprised  in  life,  there  is  no  special 
punishment ;  no  more  than  there  is  for  a  lack  of 
homage  or  love  toward  Him  or  for  non-concep- 
tion of  His  existence.  His  sun  shines  on  all, 
and  no  laws  giving  happiness  to  man  are  sus- 
pended for  the  punishment  of  the  atheist  or  the 
ingrate. 

"Gratitude,  then,  is  the  first  return  we  can 
and  should  make  to  God  for  His  great  gifts  to 
us.  But  do  we  owe  anything  else  to  God  for 
the  manifold  blessings  of  life.?  Yes,  we  owe, 
and  I  thank  heaven  can  make,  another,  and  a 
most  important  return  to  God,  the  divine  Father; 
we  can  obey  His  will  as  we  ascertain  it  and  so  fur- 
ther His  intents  and  purposes  of  righteousness 
in  this  world.  How  may  we  do  this  t  By  learn- 
ing the  laws  He  has  instituted  for  the  govern- 
ment of  man  and  of  all  nature.  These  laws  being 
instituted  for  our  best  good,  an  intelligent  self- 
interest  would  lead  us  to  obey  them.  But  there 
is  a  higher  reason,  even  gratitude;  a  principle  of 
high  honor  towards  Him  who  has  so  richly  en- 
dowed and  blessed  us.  Should  we  not  gladly 
obey  our  best  friend  }  Gratitude  towards  human 
beings  who  have  aided  us  in  kindness  we  all 
admit  to  be  a  duty ;  and  any  service  possible  to 
render  to  one  who  has  thus  kindly  aided  us 
would  be  at  once  cheerfully  given  by  every 
rightminded  man.     Can  there  be  a  doubt,  then. 


24  GRATITUDE   AND   TRUST. 

that  we  owe  God  gratitude,  and  obedience  to 
His  will  and  ascertained  laws  ?  It  is  a  great 
principle  of  duty  to  make  ourselves  and  each 
other  as  happy  as  possible ;  always  in  subservi- 
ence to  reason,  common  sense,  and  the  high 
sentiments  of  truth  and  virtue. 

"  My  strong  faith  is  in  the  perfect  righteous- 
ness and  goodness  of  God !  I  do  not  believe 
there  exists  in  nature,  or  in  human  life,  as  con- 
stituted, anything  to  justify  us  in  an  arraignment 
of  the  Power  or  Powers  above  the  human.  The 
governing  laws  and  principles  which  we  recog- 
nize in  the  manifestations  of  nature  are  all 
beneficent.  The  mass  of  mankind  have  thought 
and  acted  like  badly  made  up  children  respecting 
their  relations  with  God:  crying  and  begging, 
fearful  or  hopeful,  troublesome  towards  each 
other,  and  demanding  great  patience  from  their 
Divine  parent !  God's  gift  of  life,  and  all  the 
happiness  which  life  may  comprise,  has  been 
full,  rich  and  free;  no  onerous  conditions 
attach  to  it.  Whether  we  acknowledge  the  ex- 
istence and  goodness  of  God  or  not.  His  disin- 
terested paternal  kindness  will  not  be  withheld 
from  man  or  from  any  living  creature ! 

"  Therefore  our  relation  to  God  should  be  one 
of  love  and  veneration.  We  should  humbly 
acknowledge  the  existence  and  divine  power  of 
our  first  and  greatest  friend,  that  great  Spirit  of 
intelligence  and  goodness  which  called  us  into 


GRATITUDE   AND   TRUST.  2$ 

being.  It  is  not  necessary  in  order  to  cherish 
these  sentiments  of  love  and  gratitude  that  we 
should  perceive  in  our  rmnds  3.  personality.  We 
know  of  no  personality  higher  than  the  human. 
But  since  mentality  exists  in  all  the  operations 
of  nature,  and  in  all  the  qualities  and  powers  of 
human  life,  we  may  look  up,  each  in  his  own 
way,  to  the  Source  of  all  things  in  trust  and 
confidence ! 

"  The  true  religion  is  one  of  faith  in  an  infinite 
Righteousness  and  Love,  and  the  working  out 
of  these  principles  of  the  Divine  Nature  in  human 
life ! " 

Closing  thus  our  quotations  from  Mr.  Eddy's 
writings  we  are  confronted  with  the  problems 
and  difficulties  which  beset  so  many  of  us.  Not 
to  all  is  it  given  to  feel  such  "  strong  faith  in  the 
perfect  righteousness  and  goodness  of  God" 
that  they  never  arraign  the  conduct  of  this 
world  under  His  laws.  The  "duty  of  gratitude" 
seems  to  many  very  questionable;  the  "trust  in 
the  powers  above  "  very  difficult,  in  so  troubled 
and  incomplete  a  world  as  ours.  "  Gratitude  for 
life,"  these  would  say,  "when  it  is  one  long 
struggle,  one  constant  pain,  one  succession  of 
disappointments  "^  Gratitude  for  one's  own  life 
when  every  one  calls  it  a  failure  .-^  Gratitude  for 
the  life  of  nearest  kin  when  sin  and  shame 
and  anxiety  are  the  links  which  bind 
them  to  us  ?     Gratitude  for  life  as  a  whole  ;  for 


26  GRATITUDE   AND   TRUST. 

mankind  with  its  feet  rooted  in  bestiality ;  for 
mankind,  still  showing  the  *  tooth  and  claw  of 
nature '  as  the  fight  for  selfish  advantage  goes 
on  ?  *  Trust  in  the  powers  above '  that  all  is 
well  with  us  all,  is  well  with  the  world,  when  the 
Ideal  within  is  mocked  and  tortured  every  day 
with  the  *pain  and  wrong  enthroned  below  ? '  " 
Ah,  when  we  say  in  greatest  strength  of  faith 
"  we  believe,"  the  response  of  doubt's  weakness 
presses  quick,  "  Help  thou  my  unbelief."  Yet, 
mark  it  well,  the  experience  of  mankind  has 
shown  that  along  the  ways  of  gratitude  and  trust 
lie  soid-health  and  soul-power. 

Let  us  look  at  two  lives,  true  pictures  of  this 
fact  of  human  experience. 

There  was  a  woman  dowered  at  birth  with 
exceptional  advantages.  Her  ancestry  for  gen- 
erations had  been  clean,  high-minded,  talented 
and  cultivated  people,  of  comfortable  means. 
She,  flowered  upon  this  stock,  had  rare  talent, 
and  a  brilliancy  of  intellect  which  made  her  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  women  in  this  country. 
Early  in  life  she  married  a  good  and  honorable 
man  whose  devotion  to  her  was  an  adoration  ;  so 
that  she  was  enfolded  with  love  and  appreciation 
as  with  an  atmosphere.  A  child  came  to  bless 
their  home,  a  beautiful  boy,  reproducing  her  own 
brilliant  attractions.  She  had  wealth  and  travel 
and  leisure  in  which  to  grow  her  uttermost. 
And  the  real  nobility  of  her  nature  kept  her 


\  B  ^  A  R  y^ 

QV  rHB 

riVEBSITY 

GRATITUDE   AND   TRUST.  2^ 

from  stagnation  and  frivolity,  so  that  her  life 
was  an  inspiration  to  many ;  her  days  were  rich 
with  high  labors ;  and  her  home  a  centre  of 
intellectual  and  artistic  enjoyment.  One  day 
Death,  which  had  spared  her  when  he  had 
snatched  many  treasures  from  those  less  blessed, 
knocked  at  her  door,  as  sooner  or  later  he  will 
at  each  hut  and  palace.  And  this  beloved  wife 
became  a  widow.  In  an  hour  the  whole  current 
of  her  life  was  changed.  She  shut  herself  away 
from  the  world,  denied  herself  to  friends,  closed 
her  heart  against  the  appeals  of  charity  to  which 
before  she  had  carelessly  but  generously  re- 
sponded. She  shut  herself  in  to  an  unresigned 
desolation  which  she  felt  was  greater  than  any 
other  soul  had  known. 

Her  son  lived,  when  the  wail  of  bereaved 
mothers  ceases  not  upon  the  earth  ;  but  she  felt 
no  joy  even  in  that.  In  her  seclusion  the  large 
property  left  her  by  her  husband  was  mismanaged 
by  the  man  to  whom  he  entrusted  its  care  ;  and 
this  woman  awoke  one  morning  to  find  herself, 
not  a  poor,  but  no  longer  a  rich  woman.  Every 
comfort  was  still  hers,  while  many  women  as 
delicate  and  as  sensitive  as  she  toiled  for  bread 
and  were  rudely  swept  by  every  breath  of  for- 
tune ;  but  for  her  comforts  she  gave  no  thanks. 
Disaster  following  upon  bereavement  turned  her 
weak  sorrow  into  a  bitterness  which  spoiled  her 
home  life,  appalled  her  best  friends,  and  turned 


28  GRATITUDE   AND   TRUST. 

her  clear  logic  and  fine  wit  into  harsh  railings 
and  stinging  sarcasm.  A  blight  fell  upon  her 
intellectual  nature  itself.  Diseased  at  the  root 
of  being,  looking  at  all  the  world  through  the 
distorted  vision  of  a  selfish  resistance  to  fate, 
the  end  of  that  brilliant  creature  was  a  fret- 
fulness  and  a  complaining  restlessness  akin  to 
insanity. 

I  know  another  women,  gifted  not  so  highly, 
but  still  exceptionally  favored  in  birth,  breeding 
and  opportunity.  She  too  married  young,  and 
in  her  case  the  husband,  an  artist  of  exquisite 
nature,  was  to  her  the  embodied  beauty  and 
inspiration  of  the  universe ;  while  she  to  him 
became  rest,  and  support  and  all-surrounding 
care.  Death  early  widowed  her.  And  no  one 
who  knew  her  could  doubt  that  the  blow  struck 
to  the  very  centre  of  her  being.  But  she  turned 
bravely  to  the  lonely  duties  and  pleasures  left 
for  her.  On  their  child,  a  daughter  who  inherited 
much  of  the  best  of  both  father  and  mother, 
she  lavished  the  tenderness  which  this  chief 
bereavement  and  the  loss  of  most  of  her  near 
kindred  forced  into  one  channel.  And  out  into 
the  world  of  intellectual  work  and  of  philan- 
thropic effort  she  pressed  with  a  vigor  unknown 
before.  When  the  daughter  was  grown  a  young 
woman  of  exceptional  gifts  and  powers,  she  too 
was  suddenly  taken  away.  Those  who  knew  the 
rare  bond  between  the  two  said,  "  How  can  the 


GRATITUDE   AND   TRUST.  29 

mother  bear  this  loss  ?  "  With  just  a  little  pause 
to  gather  strength  after  the  sudden  blow,  all  the 
old  pursuits  were  resumed,  all  the  old  friends 
welcomed,  and  the  old  work  for  the  sorrowful 
and  needy  of  the  world  redoubled,  and  with  a 
tenderness  and  sweetness  of  spirit  excelling 
anything  witnessed  in  her  before.  More  than 
this;  not  to  keep  the  house  a  grave  of  buried 
hopes,  a  young  man  needing  sorely  its  shelter 
and  help,  a  student  in  a  neighboring  college,  was 
taken  to  live  with  her.  The  pathos  of  this 
woman's  patient  smile,  the  deep  lines  in  the 
sweet  face,  the  marks  of  sorrow's  aging  hand 
upon  the  bodily  frame,  these  alone  testified  how 
heavy  had  been  the  stroke.  And  an  increase  in 
breadth  and  insight  of  sympathy,  a  deeper  and 
higher  consecration  of  all  life's  gifts  and  oppor- 
tunities, testified  to  the  enrichment  of  sorrows 
patiently  and  unselfishly  borne.  Now  who  of 
us  can  doubt  that  of  those  two  women,  she  who 
in  gratitude  and  trust,  in  self-forgetting  and 
patience  made  the  best  of  everything  life  brought 
her,  was  right ;  and  she  who  in  angry  revolt  at 
sorrows  and  troubles  common  to  all,  threw  away 
all  of  comfort  and  blessing  that  remained  to  her, 
was  wrong  f 

And  as  we  use  these  words,  signifying  moral 
responsibility  and  ethical  quality,  do  we  not 
show  our  underlying  conviction  that  gratitude 
and    trust    are    duties^     not   merely    tempera- 


30  GRATITUDE    AND    TRUST. 

mental  peculiarities  or  accidental  states  of  mind  ? 

It  is  true  that  temperament  and  outward  con- 
ditions have  much  to  do  with  cheerfulness.  But 
there  is  such  a  thing,  as  the  ancient  poet  says, 
as  "  putting  forth  all  our  strength  to  exalt  the 
Lord,  and  justify  His  ways,"  and  with  success. 

Do  you  remember  that  poet  David  Wasson, 
a  man  of  such  rarely  individualized  mental  powder 
that  no  popular  success  could  come  to  him,  and 
one  at  whose  life  a  distressing  spinal  disease 
dragged  until  it  smote  him  with  blindness,  do 
you  remember  how  he,  who  had  surely  tasted 
some  of  life's  disappointments  and  hardships, 
wrote  for  us  i* — 


Ask  and  receive — 'tis  sweetly  said; 

Yet  what  to  plead  for  know  I  not; 
For  Wish  is  worsted,  Hope  o'ersped, 

And  aye  to  thanks  returns  my  thought. 
If  I  would  pray,  I've  naught  to  say 

But  this,  that  God  may  be  God  still. 
For  him  to  live  is  still  to  give. 

And  sweeter  than  my  wish  his  will. 

O  wealth  of  life  beyond  all  bound. 

Eternity  each  moment  given  ! 
What  plummet  may  the  Present  sound? 

Who  promises  a  future  heaven  ? 
Or  glad  or  grieved,  oppressed,  relieved. 

In  blackest  night  or  brightest  day, 
Still  pours  the  flood  of  golden  good 

And  more  than  heartful  fills  me  aye." 


GRATITUDE    AND    TRUST.  3 1 

"Ah  but,"  you  may  say,  "these  you  speak  of 
were  exceptional  people.  They  knew  the  delights 
of  that  intellectual  life  which  furnishes  the  best 
antidote  to  sorrow  and  trouble  that  human  nature 
knows.  And  one  had  the  poet's  temperament, 
the  exaltation  of  genius.  But  what  of  the  com- 
monplace people,  the  ordinary  sick  and  crippled, 
the  dwarfed  in  mind,  the  abnormal  in  develop- 
ment }  What  of  the  fragmentary,  even  the 
loathsome,  of  the  children  of  men  ?  "  Ah,  friends, 
I  speak  not  here  as  "  one  who  hath  attained."  I 
feel  with  George  Eliot  "  the  exceeding  difficulty 
of  human  life."  I  walk  through  the  world's 
hospitals  for  diseased  minds  and  bodies  with  a 
shuddering  sense  of  the  terrible  facts  of  human 
experience.  I  hear  amid  the  joyful  psalms  of 
praise  which  heal  and  lift  my  soul  the  undertone 
of  earth's  travail  pains,  the  "low,  sad  music  of" 
suffering  "humanity."  And  I  know,  as  most  of 
you  do  also,  the  weight  of  cares  and  anxieties 
my  trust  cannot  always  carry  serenely.  Nay, 
more  than  this,  I  see  how  the  element  in  human 
nature  which  rebels  against  bad  and  hurting 
things,  which  revolts  against  "the  slings  and 
arrows  of  outrageous  fortune,"  I  see  how  that 
element  in  human  nature  is  closely  allied  to  the 
"  divine  discontent "  which  leads  the  race 
upward  toward  better  conditions  and  so  toward 
better  living.  I  recognize  that  not  alone  should 
Pippa's  song  be  sung — 


32  GRATITUDE    AND    TRUST. 

*'  God's  in  His  heaven 

All's  right  with  His  world," 

not  only  tKat,  but  the  clarion  call  to  ourselves 
make  this  world  better  and  safer  and  happier 
for  all  the  tempted  and  weak  and  oppressed ; 
ourselvesy  with  all  our  might,  as  though  we  alone 
must  do  it. 

But  however  these  two  great  principles  of 
life — gratitude  for  the  present  and  trust  for  the 
future,  and  the  reformer's  impatience  at  existing 
ills  and  haste  to  mend  them, — however  these 
two  great  principles  may  at  times  clash  in  the 
interpretation  of  human  history,  in  the  conduct 
of  the  single  life  they  need  strike  no  discord. 
We  have  right  and  duty  to  '•  covet  earnestly  the 
best, gifts,"  and  get  rid  of  all  avoidable  ills  of 
life.  But  if  the  wisdom  of  experience  teaches 
us  anything  it  is  this, — that  when  a  personal 
trouble  cannot  be  pushed  away  it  must  be  borne 
patiently,  sweetly,  heroically,  or  it  will  kill  the 
best  life  of  the  soul.  The  wisdom  of  experience 
teaches  us  that  those  who  rail  against  fate,  who 
resist  with  bitter  complaint  the  sorrows  and  dis- 
asters which  come  upon  them,  neither  grow  in 
the  beauty  of  holiness,  nor  are  strong  to  help 
others.  And  if  we  cannot  trust  in  confidence  to 
righteousness  and  love  at  the  heart  of  things  we 
cannot  keep  our  true  sanity.  That  is  sure,  if 
experience  makes  anything   sure   both   to  our 


GRATITUDE   AND    TRUST.  33 

thought  and  feeling.  With  doubt  of  the  moral 
order  of  the  universe  we  lose  grip  upon  our  own 
unity  of  consciousness,  lose  hold  upon  all  other 
natures  for  succor  and  help.  Feeble  and 
struggling  may  be  our  faith,  choked  with  many 
a  burdening  weight,  but  its  life  is  our  life.  I 
believe  that  Mr.  Eddy's  thought  was  profoundly 
true  when  he  defined  true  religion  as  "  faith  in 
an  infinite  Righteousness  and  Love,  and  the 
working  out  of  these  principles  of  the  Divine 
Nature  in  human  life." 

And  this,  too,  I  believe,  that  the  seal  of  high 
usefulness,  such  as  is  set  upon  trust  in  the 
powers  above  that  shape  our  lives,  seal  of  high 
usefulness  in  personal  growth  and  in  world  help- 
fulness, is  never  set  upon  a  lie.  If  faith  in 
Righteousness  and  Goodness  at  the  heart  of 
things  makes  for  self -bettering  and  kindly  help- 
fulness as  it  surely  does,  and  doubt  of  the  eternal 
justice  and  love  works  madness  and  leads  to 
selfishness  as  it  surely  does,  then  faith  is  true 
to  the  actual  fact,  and  doubt  here  is  falsehood 
as  well  as  suicide  ! 

Who  are  they  whom  you  seek  in  trouble.? 
Who  are  they  who  bear  on  their  hearts  as  on 
eagle's  pinions,  the  feeble  uplooking  of  weaker 
ones }  Who  are  "  they  who  suffer,  and  grow 
strong  "  to  succor  the  afflicted  t  Who  are  they 
whose  sympathy  can  most  surely  be  counted  on, 
whose  love  is  bravest,  whose  work  for  the  least 


34  GRATITUDE    AND    TRUST. 

of  their  brethren  is  most  radiantly  hopeful  ?  Is 
it  not  those  who  in  this  incomplete  and  strug- 
gling world  have  surest  faith  that  "  God  is  on 
the  field  when  He  seems  most  invisible?"  Is  it 
not  those  who  meet  their  own  trials  most 
bravely  and  serenely,  who  resign  with  patience 
cherished  dreams  and  hopes  when  the  call 
comes,  who  wear  overmore  "  a  smile  where  tears 
have  run  ? " 

Ah,  not  as  these  who  have  attained  dare  I 
speak ;  but  this  I  know  full  well,  these  saints  of 
the  blessed  life  show  us  the  way  of  truth,  the 
way  of  beauty,  the  way  of  peace  and  sweetest 
helping  !  And  this,  too,  I  know,  that  such  saint- 
ship  comes  not  only  by  nature  ;  it  is  also  the 
gift  of  grace,  the  grace  of  striving  for  that  which 
is  above.  Such  saints  are  made  as  well  as  born. 
If  always  we  seek  for  the  good  in  our  own  lot 
and  in  the  world-condition,  and  magnify  that, 
nor  dwell  hopelessly  on  the  dark  side,  we 
acquire  more  and  more  a  habit  of  gratitude  and 
trust,  a  soul-attitude  that  makes  for  this  saint- 
ship.  If  we  resolutely  shut  out  selfish  dwelling 
upon  pain  and  weariness  we  shall  not  only  sooner 
cease  to  burden  other  lives  with  our  bodily 
weakness,  we  shall  also  the  sooner  attain  what 
command  of  our  bodies  is  possible  to  us.  This 
is  the  real  "  mind-cure,"  the  enduring  truth 
under  the  transient  "  craze  "  of  our  time. 

Nay,  deeper  than  all,  if  we  feed  our  souls 


GRATITUDE   AND   TRUST.  35 

upon  the  faith  of  those  who  have  seen  of  the 
travail  of  their  souls  and  been  satisfied ;  if  we 
realize  that  in  this  as  in  all  other  matters  con- 
nected with  the  conduct  of  life  "  there  is  cast  up 
a  highway "  for  our  soul's  ascent ;  then,  when 
we  are  overwhelmed  by  our  own  poor  doubts  we 
can  "  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,"  and  find  the 
"  world's  great  altar  stairs  which  slope  through 
darkness  up  to  God." 

There  is  no  gift  so  great  in  all  this  world  as 
he  bestows  upon  his  fellows  who  "walks  in  the 
light  and  lets  his  light  shine."  It  makes  not  the 
smallest  difference  how  he  phrases  his  faith  or 
how  he  thinks  he  comes  by  it.  He  may  not  only 
picture  its  Source  in  most  ancient  wordings,  but 
hang  childish  ornament  of  miracle-story  and 
mistaken  symbolism  upon  it.  Or  he  may  fear 
to  do  aught  but  hint  its  origin  in  mysteries  he 
does  not  try  to  translate  in  terms  of  common 
speech.  The  only  essential  is  that  like  a  flower 
he  face  upward  and  "  widen  for  others  the  skirts 
of  light." 

Saints  of  the  Blessed  Life !  They  are  many ! 
They  are  rich  and  poor :  wise  and  simple : 
learned  and  untaught :  of  favorable  circum- 
stance, sometimes, — oftener,  perhaps,  tried  as 
by  fire  with  great  afflictions.  As  one  I  once 
knew  : — who  was  crippled  to  helplessness  ;  poor 
to  hurting  dependence ;  bereft  of  all  near  helpers 
save  one  sister  who  was  blind  and  one  who  was 


36  GRATITUDE    AND    TRUST. 

a  querulous,  nervous  invalid  ;  and  who  moreover 
bore  in  her  heart  the  sorrowful  consciousness 
that  her  own  and  her  sisters'  ills  were  the  fruit 
of  a  loved  father's  wrongdoing: — and  yet  who 
was  the  cheer  and  comfort  of  a  whole  village 
because  she  trusted  and  was  glad  in  the  ever- 
lasting Strength  and  Perfection ! 

Saints  of  the  Blessed  Life  !    Would  we  might 
all  be  such  ! 

*'  Thou  Life  within  my  life,  than  self  more  near ! 
Thou  veiled  Presence  infinitely  dear  ! 
From  all  my  nameless  weariness  I  flee 
To  find  my  centre  and  my  rest  in  Thee. 
Take  part  with  me  against  these  doubts  that  rise 
And  seek  to  throne  thee  far  in  distant  skies ! 
Take  part  with  me  against  this  self  that  dares 
Assume  the  burden  of  these  sins  and  cares ! 
How  shall  I  call  thee  who  art  always  here, — 
How  shall  I  praise  thee  who  art  still  most  dear, — 
"What  may  I  give  thee  save  what  thou  hast  given, — 
And  whom  but  thee  have  I  in  earth  or  heaven." 


HOW   RELIGIONS   GROW- 


"P  VERY  intelligent,  conscious,  human  being," 
^  said  Mr.  Eddy,  "  requires  and  must  have  a 
religion.  Man  himself,  acting  individually  and 
collectively,  has  instituted  every  religion  that 
ever  existed  or  that  now  exists.  The  philosopher 
may  observe  that  the  rationality  in  the  creeds 
of  every  religion  of  every  age  has  corresponded 
to  the  degree  of  general  intelligence  existing  in 
the  human  mind  at  the  time  of  their  adoption. 
And  the  creed,  belief  and  general  character  of 
each  and  every  religion  corresponds  with  the 
supposed  character  of  God  and  the  supposed 
nature  of  man's  relations  to  God  at  the  time  of 
its  adoption.  God  being  invisible  to  our  sense, 
the  human  mind  has  idealized  Him  in  various 
forms  and  symbols. 

"As  children  we  naturally  conform  to  the 
belief  of  the  character  of  God,  of  his  laws,  and 
of  our  relation  to  him,  which  our  parents  hold 
and  assure  us  is  the  simple,  solemn  truth.  We 
are  all  born  into  our  religion  as  we  are  into  all 
other  conditions  and  faculties  which  grade  us  in 
creation.  It  is  the  will  of  God  that  mankind 
universally   should   be  born  into   the  love  and 


38  HOW   RELIGIONS   GROW. 

affection  of  their  parents,  rather  than  into  any 
especial  faith  and  belief  in  regard  to  himself. 
And  he  relies  upon  Mahometans,  Jews,  Chinese, 
Indians  and  Christians  alike,  to  give  sincerely 
to  their  children  the  best  material  and  mental 
food  they  can  command  in  all  unselfish  kind- 
ness. And  that  is  just  what  is  being  done  to-day 
in  our  world,  has  always  been  done,  and  will 
continue  to  be  until  the  end  of  time.  God  will 
not  interfere  either  to  eradicate  human  errors 
or  to  increase  human  knowledge,  save  by  and 
through  the  operation  of  laws  fixed  in  the  con- 
stitution of  things.  To  man's  more  or  less 
evolved  intelligence  at  every  given  period  of 
human  growth  is  left  the  ascertainment  and 
teaching  of  religious  as  of  other  truth. 

"Wonderful  discoveries  have  been  made  by 
the  human  intellect.  But  man's  progress  is  slow 
both  mentally  and  physically.  The  prevailing 
faith  of  one  period  of  time  has  been  rejected  by 
the  succeeding  one ;  but  in  these  changes  there 
have  been  no  abrupt  transitions.  One  faith  or 
system  of  religion  has  gradually  dissolved  into 
another  like  Daguerres  dissolving  views.  Owing 
to  this  slowness  of  growth,  and  the  often  blurred 
views  of  religious  matters  which  these  changes 
give,  it  is  often  hard  for  a  young  person  to  know 
what  to  believe. 

"As  some  trees  in  a  forest  dominate  others  in 
height  and  wide  extent  of  branches,  so  in  every 


HOW    RELIGIONS    GROW.  39 

age  of  the  world  there  are  a  few  men  who  rise 
in  intellectual  power  above  the  masses  and  be- 
come conspicuous  in  various  lines  of  thought 
and  action.  The  love  of  truth  is  stronger  in 
these  men  than  in  the  average  of  mankind,  and 
they  therefore  seek  with  earnestness  to  winnow 
truth  from  the  inherited  errors  of  superstition. 
The  intelligent  and  honest  investigations  of 
these  strong  minds  lead  the  way  to  transitions 
of  growth. 

"To  represent  God  as  partial  in  his  benefi- 
ence  to  those  who  have  accepted  a  special  form 
of  belief,  while  honest  and  good  men  and  women 
who  accept  another  as  more  consistent  with 
their  reason  are  punished  by  Him,  is  to  repre- 
sent Him  as  an  unreasonable  being,  and  to  cul- 
tivate selfish  feeling  in  those  who  consider  them- 
selves His  favorites.  These  views  of  God's 
partiality  must  pass  away. 

"We  are  now  in  a  transition  state;  and  it  is 
as  true  to  say  that  we  have  always  been  in  a 
transition  state.  And  altho'  it  is  permitted  to 
man  to  organize  for  the  support  of  many  institu- 
tions which  have  outlived  their  real  usefulness, 
no  human  organization  or  decree  can  prevent 
the  progress  of  the  human  mind,  however  ignor- 
ance and  superstition  may  retard  that  progress. 
The  idea  of  God,  of  a  higher  power  than  man, 
will,  I  believe,  never  be  eradicated  from  the 
mind  of  man:  but  by  the  training  and  cultiva- 


40  HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW. 

tion  of  reason  and  science  that  idea  is  becoming 
enlarged  and  refined  as  man  progresses  in  intel- 
ligence and  civilization.  It  has  already  become 
perceptibly  refined  and  enlarged  from  the  old 
and  grosser  forms  of  the  Christian  faith ;  and  all 
the  foundations  of  that  faith  are  being  now 
examined  and  reflected  upon;  and  slowly  but 
surely  the  truths  of  science  will  dispel  the  clouds 
of  misconception  and  error  which  now  obscure 
the  real  truths  of  religion.  Surely  we  are  justi- 
fied in  looking  for  progress  toward  perfection 
in  all  things  appertaining  to  humanity,  in  our 
religious  views  and  systems  of  faith  as  well  as 
in  all  other  departments  of  human  thought  and 
activity. 

"We  want  the  Christian  to  modify  his  ancient 
faith,  but  not  to  change  those  feelings  and 
affections  of  the  heart  which  have  been  culti- 
vated and  advanced  while  the  reason  has  lain 
dormant.  Christians  have  clung  to  the  Bible  as 
a  perfect  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  In  face  of 
scientific  discoveries  which  have  disproved  their 
doctrines,  they  have  still  believed  they  had  the 
whole  truth.  Every  scientific  man  believes  in  all 
the  truth  that  is  in  the  Bible  but  no  one  is  justified 
in  believing  that  all  of  the  Bible  is  true.  And 
in  regard  to  the  prevailing  faith  in  what  are 
called  miracles,  I  would  say  that  I  do  not  believe 
that  the  laws  of  nature,  which  are  wisely  estab- 
lished by  a  higher  power  than  man,  were  ever 


HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW.  4I 

broken  or  interfered  with  by  God.  And  any 
system  of  religion  that  requires  miracles  to 
establish  it  is  not  worth  sustaining.  If  such 
interference  with  established  laws  were  possible 
to  any  God  as  is  narrated  in  the  holy  books  of 
many  religions  it  would  prove  no  religious  prin- 
ciple. A  miracle,  if  true,  would  have  no  moral 
quality  whatever.  To  perform  a  miracle,  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  that  word,  would  be  to  prove 
only  how  much  folly  could  be  attached  to  power ! 
And  we  do  not  reverence  God  or  Devil  simply 
because  they  are  powerful.  Power  must  be 
associated  with  goodness  and  intelligence  to 
command  our  respect  and  worship. 

"As  the  mind  and  heart  are  most  affected 
in  music  by  sweet  and  simple  melodies,  so  the 
human  soul  is  most  moved  in  religious  senti- 
ments by  the  simplest  principles  of  religion. 
On  a  tablet  in  Bell  Street  Chapel  is  this  inscrip- 
tion: 'The  intelligent  and  good  live  near  to  God.' 
I  believe  that  is  true,  and  will  always  remain  so. 
In  the  human  soul  are  the  possibilities  of  approx- 
imation to  the  Divine  Mind;  and  the  qualities 
of  intelligence  of  mind  and  goodness  of  heart 
should  always  be  united  in  humble  imitation  of 
the  character  of  God.  We  are  God's  children, 
the  offshoots,  so  far  as  we  know,  of  His  best 
thoughts.  To  perceive  and  appreciate  His  intel- 
ligence and  goodness  should  be  as  easy  as  to 
breathe ;   and  would   be   so   if   our  minds   and 


42  HOW    RELIGIONS    GROW. 

hearts  were  attuned  to  nature  as  they  might  be. 

"The  religions  of  the  world  may  be  likened 
to  a  forest  of  beautiful  and  stately  trees,  round 
which  have  grown  the  briars  and  heavy  under- 
wood of  superstition  and  prejudice.  Our  men 
of  science,  and  our  great  religious  pioneers,  like 
Emerson,  Parker  and  Channing,  have  done  much 
to  clear  away  the  parasitic  growth  of  noisome 
weeds  and  the  clogging  underbrush  which  ignor- 
ance has  cherished  around  the  roots  of  these 
great  trees  of  religion.  These  pioneers  need 
themselves  to  be  watched ;  and  must  be  guided 
by  reason,  by  justice,  and  by  patience,  for  they 
act  as  engineers  and  directors  for  a  host  of 
levelers  and  workers.  The  tall  and  grand  old 
trees  which  represent  our  various  types  of  re- 
ligion may  be  left  to  grow;  their  taproots  run 
down  deeply  in  the  soil  of  human  needs  and 
sentiments;  but  we  should  prune  away  those 
limbs  of  superstitious  errors  that  prevent  the 
sunlight  of  Truth  from  penetrating  to  cheer  our 
minds  and  hearts.  Let  us  not  attempt  to  destroy 
these  trees  of  human  faith  !  Let  us  trim  them, 
and  beautify  them,  and  when  they  gradually 
decay  they  will  be  replaced  by  the  newer  faiths 
which  we  in  our  generation  believe  and  teach  to 
our  children." 

We  close  here  our  quotations  from  Mr.  Eddy's 
thought  respecting  the  subject  of  our  present 
discussion. 


HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW.  43 

How  Religions  Grow!  The  words  suggest  a 
natural  process  rather  than  a  supernatural  revel- 
ation. And  hence  the  very  title  of  this  discourse 
outlines  a  point  of  view  which  differs  from  that 
of  many  good  people  in  this  community.  To 
many,  perhaps  to  most  people,  religion  does  not 
seem  a  part  of  man's  natural  development,  but  a 
gift  to  man  from  without;  a  special  revelation, 
not  in  his  own  nature  but  externally  from  God. 
To  many,  perhaps  to  most  people,  only  the  most 
secular  parts  of  religious  history  seem  proper 
subjects  for  critical  study:  the  substance  of 
religion  itself  is  to  be  accepted  without  debate 
from  the  written  record  of  some  Bible  which  to 
them  is  literally  inspired,  as  other  books,  how- 
ever true,  cannot  be.  To  many,  perhaps  to  most 
Christians,  the  word  religion  has  slight  meaning 
outside  of  its  Christian  significance.  All  that 
is  called  religion  outside  of  Christianity  is  to 
such  a  "heathenism"  to  be  exchanged  for  the 
real  path  of  spiritual  growth;  not  an  undevel- 
oped but  authentic  passage  to  the  Temple  of 
the  Soul.  To  many,  perhaps  to  most  Christians, 
there  is  something  too  sacred  for  investigation, 
too  perfect  for  criticism,  in  the  views  of  truth 
and  duty  which  they  think  they  find  in  the 
Bible,  and  which  are  woven  into  their  religious 
consciousness  by  the  traditions  of  their  church 
beliefs.  Other  beliefs,  all  the  other  world- 
religions,  seem  to  them  of  human  origin;   the 


44  HOW    RELIGIONS    GROW. 

Christian  religion  seems  alone  divine  in  its 
source,  omnipotent  in  its  power  of  salvation 
and  uplift.  And  to  most  people  the  proof  of 
this  special  power  of  Christianity  rests  not  so 
much  upon  the  facts  of  actual  experience  in 
Christian  living  to-day  as  upon  the  account  of 
miracles  attending  the  birth  and  life  of  one  to 
them  a  God-man.  And  so  to  many,  Christianity 
to-day  is  not  so  much  loving  discipleship  of  a 
good  man  Jesus,  as  mystical  relationship  with 
the  unique  Christ. 

To  us  who  seek  to  build  here  a  little  chapel 
of  worship  to  the  All-Father,  such  a  narrow 
view  of  religion  as  this  has  passed  from  our 
minds  long  ago  "as  a  tale  that  is  told."  We 
believe  with  the  ancient  Persian  poet  that  "The 
paths  to  God  are  more  in  number  than  the 
breathings  of  created  beings."  We  believe  with 
Paul,  the  great  apostle  of  the  Christian  faith 
itself,  that  "God  giveth  to  all  life  and  breath 
and  all  things ;  and  that  he  hath  made  of  one 
blood  all  nations  of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the  face 
of  the  earth ;  that  they  should  seek  the  Lord  if 
haply  they  might  feel  after  Him  and  find  Him, 
though  He  is  is  not  far  from  every  one  of  us; 
for  in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being."  We  believe  with  Peter,  another  apostle 
of  early  Christianity,  that  "God  is  no  respecter 
of  persons ;  but  in  every  nation  he  that  f eareth 
God  and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted  of 


HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW.  45 

Him."  We  believe  with  Jesus  himself  that  all 
"the  pure  in  heart  see  God."  We  believe  with 
the  Hindu  poet  that  "Altar  flowers  are  of  many- 
species,  but  all  worship  is  one."  We  believe 
with  the  modern  scientific  teacher  Tyndall,  that 
"there  are  such  things  woven  into  the  texture 
of  man  as  the  feeling  of  Awe,  Reverence, 
Wonder,  the  love  of  the  beautiful,  physical  and 
moral,  in  Nature,  Poetry  and  Art.  There  is  also 
that  deepset  feeling  which,  since  the  earliest 
dawn  of  history,  and  probably  for  ages  prior 
to  all  history,  incorporated  itself  into  the 
religions  of  the  world."  And  we  see  that  Plu- 
tarch spoke  truly  when  he  said  "If  we  traverse 
the  world  it  is  possible  to  find  cities  without 
walls,  without  letters,  without  kings,  without 
wealth,  without  coin,  without  schools  and  thea- 
tres ;  but  a  city  without  a  temple  or  that  prac- 
tiseth  not  worship,  prayer,  or  the  like,  no  one 
ever  saw." 

To  us  then  it  has  become  clear  that  religion 
is  the  great  whole  of  which  special  religions, 
Christianity  as  well  as  all  others,  are  but  the 
parts.  It  has  become  clear  to  us  that  religion 
is  witness  to  certain  elements  of  worship  and 
right-living,  universal  in  human  nature.  And  we 
see  clearly  that  this  universal  element  in  man, 
out  of  which  all  religion  is  born,  is  subject  to 
the  same  personal  limitations,  to  the  same  laws 
of    development    from   the  lower    toward    the 


46  HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW. 

higher,  as  that  of  every  other  human  faculty 
of  perception  and  of  attainment.  And  that 
enables  us  to  see  clearly,  what  otherwise  would 
make  us  confused,  that  while  the  All-perfect 
dwells  near  each  heart,  no  one  can  see  Him  save 
through  his  own  limiting  vision ;  and  no  one 
can  know  the  ways  of  His  working  save  through 
his  own  small  measure  of  enlightenment.  And 
what  is  true  of  the  individual  nature  is  equally 
true  of  those  systems  of  belief  and  conduct 
which  we  call  the  religions  of  the  world,  "The 
great  Religions  of  the  world,"  says  T.  W.  Hig- 
ginson,  "are  but  larger  sects." 

What  then  is  the  Source  of  this  universal 
religion  of  man  of  which  Christianity  is  but  a 
part.-*  It  is  not  in  Bibles,  or  Church-canons, 
or  Miracle-stories.  It  is  in  the  great  powers 
of  nature  to  which  we  stand  related;  in  the 
Laws  of  being,  but  half  understood,  which 
bruise  us  as  we  in  ignorance  and  sin  stray  from 
our  true  orbit.  Its  Source  is  in  the  Mysteries 
which  encompass  us  about,  "things  nameless 
which  in  passing  touch  us  so"  close,  we  cringe 
in  terror,  or  are  lifted  to  reverence,  according  as 
we  are  weak  or  strong.  Its  Source  is  in  the 
tokens  of  the  hidden  Life  of  All  that  is.  The 
realities  of  the  spiritual  existence  are  the  Source 
of  j  religion.  And  the  impression  which  these 
make  upon  us,  the  outlook  and  the  uplook  which 
these  give   us,   are  what    makes   our  religion. 


HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW.  47 

Looked  at  in  this  large  way,  do  you  not  see  how 
impossible  it  is  to  believe  that  religion  is  con- 
fined to  any  one  form  of  expression  ?  Do  you 
not  see  how  impossible  this  view  makes  it  to  say 
of  all  the  great  world-faiths  by  which  millions  of 
human  beings  have  sought  and  found  comfort 
and  moral  growth,  to  say  of  all  the  great  world- 
faiths  outside  of  Christianity,  these  be  false 
religions  and  Christianity  is  alone  the  true 
faith  ?  If,  as  now  seems  true,  religion's  essence 
be  the  sense  of  each  soul's  relation  to  the  univer- 
sal Soul  of  all  things ;  and  if,  as  now  seems  true, 
religion's /(^rw  be  of  necessity  to  each  soul,  that 
soul's  individual  perception  of  this  universal, 
then  no  one  can  say  to  another,  "  I  have  religion 
and  you  have  it  not."  But  each  must  say,  "I 
have  a  part,  my  part;  you  have  another,  your 
part,  of  that  which  the  world  of  human  spirits 
cannot  contain,  the  All  in  All." 

And  history  teaches,  what  this  philosophy 
shows,  that  man  has  found  God  in  various  ways, 
that  man  has  shaped  his  religion  in  various 
forms;  forms  not  so  unlike  each  other  if  studied 
critically  and  without  prejudice  that  one  can 
say  their  difference  is  of  kind,  but  only  of  degree, 
and  characteristic.  And  history  shows  us  also 
that  man  everywhere,  so  soon  as  he  had  set  his 
religion  in  form,  supposed  he  had  got  into  it  the 
whole  of  Truth  and  of  Right.  We  find  that  the 
same  miracle-stories   which  Christianity,  as  an 


48  HOW    RELIGIONS    GROW. 

external  system  of  faith,  has  built  itself  upon, 
have  been  told  of  and  believed  by  every  other 
religious  system  to  be  the  guarantees  of  its  gen- 
uineness and  power.  And  we  see,  more  and 
more  as  science  shows  us  the  Unity  and  the 
Inviolability  of  Law,  that  all  such  tales  are  to 
be  explained  as  the  natural  effect  of  great  per- 
sonalities and  extraordinary  events  upon  the 
excited  imagination  of  superstitious  and  un- 
learned people,  and  not  accepted  as  authentic 
history.  More  and  more  is  it  becoming  impos- 
sible for  thinking  people  to  see  in  Nature  or  in 
human  history  anything  but  a  revelation  of 
regular  order  and  steady  natural  development. 
And  this  modern  way  of  looking  at  things  is 
leading  us  all,  whether  we  perceive  it  or  not,  to 
look  at  religion  as  natural  and  universal  rather 
than  as  supernatural  and  partial. 

How  then  have  Religions,  the  differing  special 
expressions  of  this  natural  and  universal  human 
endowment,  how  then  have  Religions  grown.? 
Not  from  the  top  down,  so  that  we  must  look 
backward  for  our  Eden  and  our  Golden  Age, 
but  from  the  bottom  up,  so  that  "all  before  us 
gleams  truth's  campfires:  we  ourselves  must 
pilgrims  be."  How  have  Religions  grown.?  Not 
from  the  Perfect  Word  spoken  by  God  from 
Heaven,  and  written  by  his  own  hand  upon 
human  parchments,  to  be  worshiped  ever  after 
as  the  absolute  truth,  but  by  the  stammering 


HOW    RELIGIONS    GROW.  49 

speech  of  men,  as  they  have  "stood  God-con- 
quered with  face  upward  to  the  sky;"  by  men 
of  all  times,  and  of  all  peoples,  as  they  have 
sought  with  struggle  and  in  joy  to  "tell  the 
tale"  the  universe  has  told  to  them.  How  have 
Religions  grown.?  Not  by  the  Tables  of  the 
Righteous  Law  given  in  the  Sinai  thunders  of 
one  sacred  mountain,  to  one  race  of  men  only, 
but  by  the  Law  of  Conduct  written  on  the  tab- 
lets of  men's  hearts  everywhere;  and  deciphered 
slowly  through  the  long  ages  as  life's  needs, 
life's  desires,  life's  loves  and  hates,  its  joys  and 
sorrows,  have  taught  man  the  "sacred  Ought" 
of  conscience.  How  have  Religions  grown? 
Not  only,  not  chiefly  even,  by  the  great  offices 
of  Saints,  Sages  and  Seers  who  earliest  spoke 
its  Word,  and  best  lived  its  Life,  but  by  the 
strain  and  stress  of  lowly  and  humble  lives,  by 
those  who  in  every  nation  and  in  all  times  have 
eagerly  sought  their  little  truth,  have  earnestly 
followed  their  feeble  right,  have  loved  with  all 
their  childish  hearts  the  best  they  knew!  These, 
the  humble  and  unknown,  have  made  the  soil 
and  climate  wherein  those  fair  and  stately 
flowers  of  humanity,  whose  names  have  been 
given  to  earth's  Religions,  have  grown  in  beaut  y 
and  in  strength ! 

Be  not  afraid,  my  friend  to  whom  these  thoughts 
are  new.     Do  not  fear  that  aught  you  ever  love  d 
in  your  own  faith  will  perish  when  it  is  seen  to 

5 


50  HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW. 

be  not  a  unique  blessing  but  one  of  a  family  of 
heavenly  gifts ! 

Religion  is  no  hot-house  plant,  to  be  killed 
with  the  first  breath  of  frosty  air  brought  by  a 
new  wave  of  thought.  Religion  is  no  hot-house 
plant;  altho  man's  childish  play  with  sacred 
things  of  life  has  forced  it  often  into  abortive 
and  unnatural  growths.  It  is  a  plant  of  the 
open  air ;  of  the  traveled  highway ;  of  the  desert 
and  the  mountain  wilds ;  and  of  the  walled  city 
as  well.  The  special  system  of  religion  we  have 
inherited,  that  complex  faith,  product  of  many 
elements  of  most  diverse  life  which  we  call 
Christianity,  what  is  its  history  t  It  was  planted, 
a  seed  of  pregnant  meaning,  in  the  open  plains 
where  our  Aryan  forefathers  sang  hymns  of 
praise  to  the  "Heaven-Father."  It  was  named 
with  interlacing  and  intricate  tracery  of  nature- 
worship  and  pantheistic  philosophy,  by  the 
Greek  life  which  gave  us  Art  and  the  poetic 
hint  of  modern  science.  It  was  nursed  at  the 
hearth-fire  of  ancestor-worship,  and  of  the  hero- 
worship  into  which  ancestor-worship  grew,  in 
the  "Ancient  City,"  by  the  Roman  life  which 
gave  us  law  and  civic  autonomy;  and  the 
human  element,  the  germ  of  the  Christ-idea,  in 
religion,  as  well.  It  crossed  its  seed  for  richer 
fertilization  with  the  majestic  rugged  monothe- 
ism of  the  higher  Judaism ;  that  faith  which  like 
a  lonely  pine  in  the  desert  stood  for  one  growing 


HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW.  5 1 

beauty  in  a  harsh  and  barren  civilization,  as  it 
testified  "Behold  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  God! 
Worship  ye  Him  with  the  whole  heart!" 

This  complex  religious  inheritance  of  ours 
which  men  call  Christianity,  was  tended  to  new 
and  wonderful  growth,  its  leavings  were  multi- 
plied for  the  healing  and  delight  of  many  nations, 
by  that  Great  Gardener  of  the  Soul,  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  Not  a  God  was  he  to  know  all  things. 
Not  a  great  philosopher  to  teach  all  the  shadings 
of  truth.  Not  even  an  exact  guide  in  all  the 
complicated  duties  of  modern  social  relation. 
Just  a  man  among  men;  with  the  deficiencies 
of  his  time-vision,  with  the  incompleteness  of 
every  human  receptacle  of  Divine  Life.  But 
one  who  so  mingled  the  ethical  passion  with  the 
glad  trust  in  God  as  a  Heavenly  Father,  that  he 
seems  to  me  the  most  helpful  teacher  of  religion 
for  the  most  varied  sorts  of  people,  of  any  the 
world  has  known.  How  mightily  under  his 
hand  spread  the  real  life  of  religion!  How 
thick  as  leaves  in  autumn  fell  from  its  ancient 
branches  the  out-worn  traditions  and  gaudy 
trappings  of  the  plant  of  faith  he  tended !  But 
Ah,  the  pity  of  it,  how  soon,  when  his  immediate 
touch  was  gone,  his  simple  faith  of  love  to  God 
and  love  to  man  was  buried  under  the  rubbish 
of  wordy  theologies!  The  name  of  him  who 
was  great,  not  so  much  in  the  theory  or  science 
of  religion  as  in  its  Practical  Arty  was  used  to 


52  HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW. 

blaspheme  with  in  the  temple;  to  blaspheme 
against  the  Holy  Spirit  of  religion,  while  men 
bowed  low  before  the  letter  that  killeth. 

The  name  of  him  who  lost  his  life  in  trying  to 
teach  men  that  "the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
within"  was  straightway  used  to  cover  a  vast 
system  of  external  forms  and  of  secular  power 
which  for  ages  nearly  crushed  out  the  distinctive 
life  of  Christianity! 

Almost,  not  quite:  the  faith  which  is  woven 
into  the  tissues  of  our  complex  civilization  still 
holds  the  kernel  of  ever  renewing  life.  The 
kernel  of  that  life  which  is  oney  altho'  from  every 
hundred  men  who  profess  to  be  Christians  you 
may  get  as  many  definitions  of  Christianity. 

Says  F.  W.  Robertson:  "All  true  unity  is 
manifold.  Identical  feelings  find  countless  forms 
of  expression."  And  what  Lowell  says  of  "na- 
tions" is  preeminently  true  of  Religions: 

*'  Each  has  its  own  message  from  on  high 
For  the  fulfillment  and  delight  of  man. 
One  has  to  teach  that  Labor  is  divine, 
Another  Freedom,  and  another  mind. 
And  all  that  God  is  open-eyed  and  just. 
The  happy  centre  and  calm  heart  of  all." 

The  word  which  Christianity,  more  than  any 
other  world-religion,  was  formed  to  teach  is 
still  a  living  word. 

And  all  the  world   around,  at  least   once  a 


HOW    RELIGIONS    GROW.  53 

year,  when  the  Christmas  chimes  ring,  "Peace 
on  earth  ;  Good  will  to  Men,"  that  central  Word 
of  Christianity  is  passed  along  from  sheltered 
nursery  to  darkest  prison-house  of  sin,  that 
Word  which  Jesus  spoke,  "Behold,  God  is 
our  Father,  and  all  we  are  brethren." 

And  why  does  distinctive  Christianity  live, 
persist  under  changes  which  make  its  outward 
form  over  unnumbered  times.'*  Because  it  is 
named  after  one  called  Christ,  and  has  a  sacred 
book  we  call  the  Bible.?  Because  God  fosters 
its  growth  in  ways  peculiar  and  different  from 
those  common  to  all  plants  of  human  aspiration 
and  upward  striving.?  Not  for  such  small  and 
childish  reasons.  Our  inherited  faith  lives  to- 
day because  in  spite  of  its  misshapen  branches, 
and  its  gnarled  spots  of  human  frailty  and 
error,  it  has  part  and  lot  in  that  everlasting  life 
of  the  soul,  "which  is  hid  with  Christ,"  as  it  has 
been  hid  with  Buddha  and  with  other  great 
seers  of  religion,  "in  God."  The  name  of  our 
inherited  faith  is  an  incident  of  human  lan- 
guage ;  its  changing  fortune  the  fashion  of  this 
world  which  passeth  away.  Only  that  in  it  which 
was  alive  before  it  was  named,  and  which  could 
survive  all  new  naming  in  any  future,  is  the 
permanent  and  essential  part.  Said  St.  Augus- 
tine, "What  is  now  called  the  Christian  religion 
has  existed  among  the  ancients,  and  was  not 
absent  from  the  beginning  of  the  human  race 


54  HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW. 

until  Christ  came  in  the  flesh ;  from  which  time 
the  true  religion,  which  already  existed,  began 
to  be  called  Christian."  And  we  who  have 
learned  more  than  St.  Augustine  could  know 
of  the  unity  of  law  and  the  unity  of  human 
nature,  may  well  say,  without  fear,  that  when 
the  universal  spirit  of  religion  outgrows  for  any 
single  worshipper,  or  for  the  world's  temples, 
the  special  names  by  which  it  has  been  called, 
still  its  life  will  be  that  which  was,  and  is  and 
shall  be  forever  more;  the  upward  look,  the 
self-purification,  the  world-helpfulness  which  all 
Religions  have  hinted. 

Our  subject  is,  "  How  Religions  Grow."  This 
problem  fibres  itself  upon  the  deeper  one,  how 
does  that  inner  life  of  faith  and  service  which  is 
the  heart  of  all  Religions,  grow.?  In  the  ex- 
ternal sense,  the  spirit  of  religion  which  is 
common  to  all  systems  of  world-faiths  grows 
in  the  joining  of  what  is  excellent  in  one  to 
what  is  excellent  in  another ;  grows  by  the  large 
outlook  and  the  broad  fraternity  which  slights 
no  flower  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord. 

But  the  spirit  common  to  all  Religions,  that 
which  is  religion's  very  life,  grows  not  so  much 
in  any  knowledge  about  it,  as  in  the  feeling  of 
each  individual  heart  that  it  is  the  great  Reality. 
Not  what  we  can  tell  about  the  progress  of 
the  human  soul  upward  but  what  power  of 
growth  is  in  ourselves.     Our  philosophy  of  re- 


HOW   RELIGIONS    GROW.  55 

ligion  may  be  perfect  and  yet  religion  find  in  us 
no  fair  exemplar.  Our  "views"  may  be  small 
and  poor,  and  yet  our  daily  lives  may  show  the 
majesty  and  beauty  of  the  Eternal  Truth  and 
Right. 

"  Nor  knowest  thou  what  argument 
Thy  life  to  thy  neighbor's  creed  has  lent." 

Man's  thought  about  religion  grows  with  all 
that  enlarges  his  vision  of  truth,  with  all  that 
greatens  his  devotion  to  righteousness,  with 
all  that  sweetens  and  enriches  his  affectional 
life.  Man's  experience  of  religion  itself  grows 
by  one  thing  only,  the  sincere  and  faithful  striv- 
ing toward  the  best  each  one  sees  and  feels. 
Let  us  be  grateful  for  the  new  thought,  which 
has  given  us  all  in  these  later  days  grander 
views  of  the  Sources  and  of  the  growth  of 
religion  than  were  common  a  generation  ago. 

But  above  all  let  us  not  forget  what  was  well 
known  to  the  generations  of  old,  "That  God  is, 
and  that  He  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  Him." 


REASON  IN  RELIGION. 


"\17E  may  doubt  the  truth  of  any  system  of 
^^  worship,"  says  Mr.  Eddy,  "that  cannot 
weave  into  its  service  all  truth  of  every  science 
and  department  of  human  knowledge.  Let  us 
not  forget  that  by  human  reason  and  experience 
we  are  to  judge  of  all  things  mental  and 
physical  in  this  world.  We  must  judge  by 
human  reason  of  our  relations  to  God,  and  our 
relations  to  man,  as  well  as  of  all  matters  per- 
taining to  physical  existence  and  the  laws  of 
nature.  And  when  a  theologian  presents  to  us 
for  our  sanction  and  credence  any  doctrine  or 
article  of  belief  which  violates  our  reason  and 
common  sense  we  must  reject  such  as  an  insult 
to  human  reason.  And  if  the  sentiment  or 
affirmation  such  a  theologian  may  urge  is  also 
derogatory  to  the  character  of  God,  we  may 
doubly  resent  it  as  an  insult  to  the  dignity  of 
both  God  and  man.  I  count  the  dogma  of  an 
eternal  hell  of  torment  a  striking  example  of 
such  a  double  insult  to  the  character  of  both 
God  and  man.  All  such  ideas  are  unfounded  in 
experience  and  violate  every  dictate  of  reason 
and   justice.     Why   will   not   mankind  forever 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  57 

cast  aside  the  pessimistic  and  unreasonable  idea 
that  God  has  attached  such  conditions  to  His 
gift  of  life  to  man  as  would  rob  it  of  all  its  value! 

"  It  is  true  that  all  sects  are  softening  the 
expression  of  old  dogmas.  And  many  who  still 
profess  them  I  believe  have  secretly  repudiated 
them  for  the  most  part ;  for  as  Matthew  Arnold 
says  in  substance,  *  Insincerity  in  teaching  re- 
ligious doctrines  is  the  crime  of  the  age.'  In 
olden  times  Christians  in  their  strong  and 
fervent  faith  in  the  dogmas  of  the  church  felt  it 
their  duty  to  co-operate  with  God  in  His  punish- 
ment of  unbelievers  by  means  of  the  fagot,  the 
stake,  the  chain  and  the  scourge !  The  In- 
quisition is  a  witness  to  the  intense  faith  of 
many  Christians  of  an  earlier  age  in  a  cruel  and 
revengeful  God.  These  cruel  methods  of  en- 
larging the  church,  and  punishing  those  who  will 
not  join  it,  are  now  softened  and  changed.  And 
the  influences  which  lead  toward  the  recognition 
of  the  human  reason  as  the  supreme  judge  of 
what  it  is  right  and  wise  to  believe  and  to  do  are 
increasing  every  day.  We  have  to-day  news- 
papers and  periodicals  devoted  to  '  establishing 
religion  upon  a  scientific  basis,'  and  which 
take  'Truth  for  authority  and  not  authority  for 
truth.' 

"  In  order  that  the  intelligent  apprehension  of 
religion  and  the  growth  of  a  true  religion  may 
become  universal,  we  must  secure  for  all  human- 


OK   THR 


58  REASON    IN    RELIGION. 

kind,  children  as  well  as  adults,  perfect  liberty 
in  thinking.  What  greater  service  can  we 
render  to  our  children,  than  to  teach  them  to 
think,  to  think  for  themselves.  As  the  bird 
mother  teaches  her  fledglings  to  use  their  wings 
to  hop,  and  move  their  pinions  and  finally  to 
soar,  so  in  regard  to  their  minds  should  we  act 
towards  our  children.  Whilst  we  honestly  teach 
them  the  truest  and  best  we  know  in  the 
principles  of  morality  and  religion,  yet  in  teach- 
ing them  let  us  leave  their  minds  free. 

"We  should  give  them  to  understand  that 
while  as  parents  we  sincerely  and  honestly 
teach  them  what  we  ourselves  believe,  we  do  not 
seek  to  smother  or  bind  their  souls.  Many 
children,  by  exercising  the  spiritual  forces 
within  them,  arrive  at  a  higher  point  of  intelli- 
gence and  goodness  than  their  parents  ever 
attained  to ;  and  there  should  be  no  jealousy,  no 
opposition  to  this  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the 
parent.  God,  by  planting  disinterested  love  in 
the  minds  of  parents,  has  willed  the  existence  of 
a  principle  in  the  paternal  mind  which  unwit- 
tingly operates  in  accordance  with  the  divine 
principles  of  development  and  evolution.  We 
might  perhaps  safely  trust  this  natural  action  in 
parents  toward  their  children  were  it  not  for  the 
injurious  principles  and  influence  of  the  churches 
with  fixed  creeds  of  belief,  requiring  conformity 
to  narrow,  bigoted  views,  on  threats  of  direful 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  59 

consequences  in  this  world,  and  in  the  world 
which  they  believe  is  to  come.  We  must,  how- 
ever, be  charitable  towards  the  superstitious 
sects  darkened  in  their  minds;  for  as  Christ 
said  of  His  murderers,  'they  know  not  what 
they  do.' 

"There  are  heights  and  depths  in  the  laws  of 
mind  which  are  less  understood  than  the  laws  of 
matter.  In  the  laws  of  conscience,  for  instance, 
we  are  dependent  upon  education,  and  education 
depends  upon  circumstances  which  we  create. 
In  the  construction  of  conscience  in  many  cases, 
reason,  the  natural  guide,  is  not  permitted  to 
govern,  or  rather  is  not  developed  by  reflection 
and  experience.  For  instance,  the  young  thieves 
attached  to  a  gang  of  robbers  are  taught  as  a 
matter  of  conscience  to  steal  on  every  available 
occasion ;  and  their  consciences  are  wounded 
when  they  let  slip  an  occasion  of  filching,  and 
the  public  sentiment  of  the  gang  condemns 
them.  The  poor  Hindu  widow,  who  burns  her- 
self upon  the  funeral  pile  of  her  husband,  does  it 
in  obedience  to  the  laws  of  conscience  created 
by  a  superstitious  public  sentiment.  It  may 
seem  a  hard  doctrine  to  declare  that  in  every 
case  to  act  in  accordance  with  an  approving 
conscience  carries  with  it  the  smile  of  God  in 
the  soul, — a  melancholy  smile  it  may  be  in  the 
case  of  the  young  thief  and  the  poor  sacrificed 
widow, — but  such  is  the  law  of  conscience  in 


60  REASON    IN   RELIGION. 

regard  to  sincerity,  and  it  is  just  and  must  be  so. 
God  cannot  in  justice  require  of  any  human 
being  to  act  contrary  to  the  best  he  knows. 
The  same  law  holds  good  with  the  intelligent  as 
with  the  ignorant ;  we  should  all  of  us  act 
honestly  and  sincerely  in  accordance  with  the 
best  we  know.  Our  Puritan  Fathers  in  perse- 
cuting and  hanging  the  poor  Quakers  did  the 
best  they  knew. 

"Hence  it  is  of  vital  importance  that  we 
develop  the  spirit  of  intelligence  and  freedom  in 
our  plans  of  education,  in  our  moral  and  religious 
principles.  Let  us  never  forget  that  we  are  free, 
and  that  an  inevitable  responsibility  accompanies 
soul-freedom,  and  that  we  are  guilty  if  we  do  not 
search  diligently  to  find  the  truth  in  all  questions 
of  religion  and  morality.  For  unless  we  use 
the  reason  and  reflecting  powers  with  which  we 
are  endowed  to  correct  erroneous  views  of 
religion,  morality,  justice  in  government  and  so 
on,  we  shall  always  be  subjected  to  error.  The 
evils  of  error  can  never  be  measured  save  by  the 
new  truth  which  is  revealed.  And  we  may  well 
ask  with  Festus  of  old  *  What  is  truth  } '  One 
fixed  fact  is  that  truth  is  of  slow  development, 
and  its  progress  must  be  measured  by  the  gro^vth 
and  influence  of  reason  and  experience. 

"We  have  to  judge  of  all  things  in  this  world 
by  human  faculties,  more  or  less  enlightened  by 
reason  and  common  sense.     By  these  tests  I 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  6l 

dare  to  judge  of  the  Christian  system  of  theology, 
and  where  it  seems  to  conflict  with  the  revelation 
of  God's  character  in  outward  nature,  to  condemn 
that  system  as  erroneous.  We  should  consider 
without  dogmatism  those  questions  respecting 
religion  which  are  of  the  highest  import  and 
interest,  both  to  ourselves  and  to  our  children. 
We  must  decide  by  the  light  of  our  mental  con- 
stitution the  great  questions  concerning  the 
character  of  God  and  our  relations  to  him  and 
the  sentiments  we  should  cherish  and  express 
toward  him.  And  as  the  interest  of  all  requires 
that  the  best  guiding  principles  in  all  our 
relations  with  God  and  man  should  be  adhered 
to,  as  far  as  we  know  them,  all  should  be  willing 
to  meet  amicably  on  the  common  ground  of 
reflection,  investigation  and  kindness. 

"  When  the  Roman  Catholic  Christian  church 
was  at  the  height  of  its  power  it  was  not  safe 
for  doubters,  or  those  leaders  of  thought  who 
first  define  the  next  step  of  progress,  to  think 
aloud.  For  freedom  of  speech  in  those  times 
meant  punishment  by  fagot  and  torture.  In 
those  days  it  seemed  to  ask  too  great  sacrifice 
of  any  philosophic  thinker  to  risk  the  penalty 
incurred  by  any  criticism  of  the  prevailing 
religious  views.  But  some  noble  men  did  take 
those  risks  and  received  their  martyrdom  !  By 
the  efforts  of  these  lovers  and  seekers  of  truth 
we  have    reached  a    stage  when   no    religious 


62  REASON    IN   RELIGION. 

organization  amongst  us  can  forbid  freedom  of 
speech  or  check  independent  thought.  But  in 
our  own  day  the  systems  of  theology  bar  out  the 
masses  by  the  onerous  unreasonable  conditions 
which  they  annex  to  discipleship.  Belief  in 
repulsive  dogmas  and  in  a  special  order  of 
ceremonies  is  still  demanded  of  those  who  would 
become  members  of  the  church,  which  in  our 
own  land  means  the  Christian  church.  And 
preachers  do  not  ask  us  to  study  the  grounds  of 
the  belief  which  they  press  upon  our  acceptance. 
Their  tone  is  still  imperative,  *  Believe  or  you 
will  be  damned.' 

"  I  would  not  have  a  religious  society  attach 
merit  to  belief  nor  demerit  to  unbelief ;  for  both 
may  be  honest  states  of  the  mind  in  regard  to 
the  truth  or  error  of  what  is  presented  to  it  for 
decision.  If  our  minds  are  weighted,  as  all  must 
admit  is  possible,  with  any  degree  of  the  ignor- 
ance and  superstition  bequeathed  to  us  by  our 
honest  forefathers,  how  willing  we  should  all  be 
to  revise  and  reexamine  the  grounds  of  our  faith 
and  guiding  principles  of  action  in  religious 
matters ! 

"  Every  man's  convictions  should  be  stamped 
by  his  own  reason  and  judgment,  and  packed 
away  in  his  memory  ticketed  with  the  reasons 
for  his  faith.  But  all  convictions  supposed  by 
any  one  to  be  true  are  likely  to  be  modified  :  for 
in  the  evolution  of  thought  there  are  no  finalities. 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  63 

The  data  of  science,  philosophy  and  religion  are 
constantly  changing  with  the  onward  progress 
of  the  human  mind.  No  man  can  therefore 
conceive  of  any  advance  or  amelioration  in 
science,  morals  or  religion  that  his  own  study 
has  enabled  him  to  make,  which  another  man, 
wiser  and  better  than  he,  may  not  improve  upon. 

''  Man  in  every  age  is  entitled  to  the  best 
thought  which  experience,  reflection  and  science 
ripen  into  wisdom  as  fruit  is  ripened  by  sun- 
shine, showers  and  time." 

We  end  thus  our  quotations  from  Mr.  Eddy's 
thought  upon  the  topic  of  our  present  discussion, 
— Reason  in  Religion. 

Reason,  we  say,  is  the  "faculty  of  judging." 
Reason  in  religion,  then,  is  the  use  of  this  faculty 
of  judging  in  all  that  relates  to  religious  concerns. 
Judgment  implies  a  power  of  discernment.  And 
discernment  implies  intelligent  observation  and 
perception.  Hence  to  exercise  reason  in  religious 
concerns  is  to  intelligently  perceive  the  facts  of 
nature  and  human  life  which  relate  to  religion, 
to  judge  of  them  with  discernment  or  discrimi- 
nation, and  to  pass  an  independent  opinion  from 
conclusions  arrived  at  by  careful  and  rational 
methods.  That  all  means  that  if  one  exercises 
his  reason  in  religion,  he — to  use  a  most  signifi- 
cant phrase  of  common  speech — "  makes  up  his 
mind "  about  religious  matters  precisely  as  he 
"makes  up  his  mind"  about  the  things  which 


64  REASON    IN    RELIGION. 

relate  to  all  ether  concerns  of  life.  Reason  is 
only  educated  "  common  sense  !  "  And  what  is 
common  sense  ?  Common  sense  is  that  in  the 
average  man  or  woman  which  registers  for  the 
personal  conduct  of  life  results  of  general  human 
experience.  Common  sense  is  the  common 
reason  about  common  things  and  common  ideas. 
Common  sense  is  the  "  balance  wheel "  of  the 
ordinary  nature,  that  which  keeps  it  from  running 
off  on  tangents  of  eccentricity  and  foolishness. 
We  say  often  of  a  brilliant  but  erratic  or  ill- 
balanced  person,  "  He  has  every  sort  of  sense 
but  common  sense."  We  mean  by  this  that 
although  he  has  unusual  ability  to  perceive  and 
utilize  the  special  elements  of  thought  and  life 
to  which  his  individual  nature  allies  him,  he  has 
less  than  the  ordinary  capacity  to  take  advant- 
age of  these  general  elements  of  thought  and 
life  which  are  the  "common-wealth  "  of  all  man- 
kind. Common  sense  is,  then,  the  faculty  by 
which  ordinary  men  and  women  see  things  in 
sensible  fashion,  put  this  and  that  together 
shrewdly,  and  so  learn  how  to  fit  their  own  lives 
into  the  social  organism  with  as  little  friction  as 
may  be,  and  with  some  measure  of  success  in 
conduct  and  affairs. 

Now  the  educated  common  sense  which  we 
call  reason  is  simply  that  same  acute  observation, 
that  same  sensible  balance  of  judgment,  that 
same  shrewd  fitting  of  a  part  into  the  whole. 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  6$ 

(which  give  ordinary  men  success  in  the  lower 
elements  of  life),  trained  and  brought  to  bear 
upon  high  questions.  What  man's  common 
sense  absorbs  from  general  human  experience, 
often  unconsciously,  and  applies  to  the  every- 
day problems  of  life,  the  reason  of  men  in  its 
free  and  trained  exercise  explains,  enlarges,  sets 
in  right  relation,  consciously^  and  with  philosophic 
statement,  in  application  to  the  profounder 
questions  of  our  existence. 

Mr.  Lecky  has  sketched  for  us  in  his  masterly 
way  the  "  Rise  and  Growth  of  Rationalism  in 
Europe."  And  we  see  by  his  picture  how  this 
rationalism,  which  is  simply  the  dependence  upon 
trained  reason,  is  the  key  to  progress  in  thought 
and  morals.  And  the  rightful  sovereignty  of 
reason  is  acknowledged  now-a-days  by  intelligent 
people,  without  fear,  in  every  department  of  life 
save  in  religion.  The  only  places  where  the 
human  reason  is  decried  as  a  dangerous  and 
mischievous  element  in  man's  nature  are  pulpits 
and  church  conventions.  The  daily  newspaper, 
and  the  finest  as  well  as  the  most  ordinary 
literature  of  our  time,  calls  constantly  upon  us 
to  use  our  best  and  freest  judgment.  Art  stimu- 
lates not  only  the  imagination,  but  the  critical 
faculty.  And  every  element  of  charity  and  of 
social  reform  demands  that  we  examine  fearlessly 
the  actual  conditions  of  life  and  decide  independ- 
ently upon  a  course  of  theory  and  practice. 

6 


66  REASON    IN   RELIGION. 

And  to-day  the  way  in  which  the  common 
sense  of  the  ages  is  condensed  and  explained 
by  the  free  action  of  the  trained  reason  is 
understood  by  every  intelligent  reader  of 
history,  save  only  in  the  department  of  religious 
history. 

How  has  it  been  in  government .?  The  common 
sense  of  the  oppressed  for  ages  during  monarchial 
rule  saw  clearly  that  something  was  wrong.  The 
common  sense  of  justice  was  outraged  by  the 
cruel  exactions  of  kings  and  nobles.  The  com- 
mon sense  of  human  brotherhood  was  at  work 
even  in  palaces,  making  the  truly  noble  among 
the  reigning  classes  uncomfortable  in  their 
superiority  of  place  and  power.  And  this  com- 
mon feeling  which  for  ages  never  dared  question 
the  inherited  belief  in  the  "Divine  Right  of 
Kings,"  beat  helplessly  and  with  bitter  complaint 
against  the  effects  of  that  belief  when  carried 
into  action.  At  last  the  reason  of  man  applied 
to  affairs  of  social  order  put  this  and  that  to- 
gether, and  declared  that  the  something  which 
all  knew  was  wrong  was  that  one  class  had  too 
much  power  and  others  too  little  freedom  under 
the  monarchial  form  of  government.  And 
straightway  what  had  for  ages  been  known 
to  be  hurting  was  declared  to  be  wrong.  The 
reason  of  man  put  the  extravagance,  the 
licentiousness,  the  idleness,  the  cruelty  of  the 
reigning  classes  on  the   one  side,  against  the 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  67 

grinding  poverty,  the  degradation,  the  overwork, 
the  suffering  of  the  lower  classes  on  the  other, 
and  judged  that  the  two  were  twin  evils  of  a  bad 
system  of  social  order.  And  so,  by  the  decree 
of  reason,  a  new  order  of  government,  one 
recognizing  more  fully  equality  of  human  rights, 
was  instituted.  And  do  you  not  see  that  so  long 
as  men  held  slavishly  to  the  tradition  that  Kings 
Ruled  by  Divine  Right  there  could  be  no 
successful  revolt  against  the  cruel  abuses  of 
kingly  power.?  Humble  petition  there  might 
be  when  the  oppression  was  too  heavy  and 
grievous  to  be  borne  in  silence:  appeal  from 
religion  and  philanthropy  to  the  magnanimity 
and  generosity  of  kings  and  nobles  in  behalf  of 
the  suffering:  but  no  uprising  of  an  outraged 
human  dignity  to  strike  the  conquering  blow  for 
its  own  emancipation  from  governmental  abuses, 
until  the  idea  of  the  Divine  Right  of  Equal 
Justice  was  born. 

In  government,  what  the  common  sense  of 
man  sought  for  ages  to  mitigate  and  make  more 
tolerable  by  practical  action,  which  was  incon- 
sistent often  with  the  theory  of  government  still 
loyally  professed ; — that  the  trained  reason,  by 
sharp  and  fearless  questioning,  by  free  investi- 
gation of  actual  facts,  by  balanced,  firm  judgment 
applied  to  real  conditions  without  regard  to 
traditions, — overthrew.  So  that  to-day  in  this 
great  and  blessed  country  of  ours  we  have  the 


68  REASON    IN    RELIGION. 

grandest  testimony  to  the  beneficent  action  of 
the  human  reason  that  the  world  affords. 

Now,  just  as  in  government  our  ancestors 
inherited  the  idea  that  the  King's  Right  to 
power  is  of  Divine  origin,  and  must  not,  there- 
fore, be  assailed  or  sharply  criticised,  so  in 
religion  we  have  all  inherited  the  idea  that  our 
Religion  is  of  Divine  origin  in  such  sense  that 
it  is  not  subject  for  our  free  enquiry  and  for  the 
judgments  of  our  untrammeled  reason.  At  one 
time,  as  you  know,  all  our  ancestors  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Roman  Catholic  church ;  and  then 
loyalty  to  religion  meant  unquestioning  accept- 
ance of  the  interpretation  put  upon  the  Bible, 
the  sacred  book  of  the  Christian  religion — by  an 
infallible  church.  But  one  day  the  human  reason 
spoke  through  Luther,  and  declared  that  what 
the  unrest  and  deep  dissatisfaction  of  the  com- 
mon life  for  ages  had  testified  had  foundation  in 
fact,  namely,  that  the  church  was  not  infallible; 
for  it  worked  evil  as  well  as  good,  and  many  of 
its  ministers  and  dignitaries  were  corrupt  and 
wrought  corruption  in  society.  And  straightway 
we  had  the  Reformation  ;  that  great  movement 
in  thought  and  life  which  has  shaped  all  the 
modern  tendencies  of  our  civilization.  Then 
after  Luther  gave  voice  to  reason's  arraignment 
of  the  pretensions  of  Latin  Christianity,  the 
chief  dogma  of  the  church  was  changed.  It  had 
been  "  an  infallible  church  to  interpret  and  apply 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  69 

a  perfect  Word  of  God."  It  now  became  "  The 
open  Bible ;  each  man  his  own  guide  through 
the  Inspired  Word." 

Since  the  era  of  the  Reformation  **  the  open 
Bible"  and  "the  right  of  private  judgment" 
have  multiplied  Christian  sects  until  the  wisest 
cannot  tell  their  number  nor  the  most  exact 
their  variations.  And  each  little  hamlet  in  our 
land  is  made  the  scene  of  dividing  rather  than 
uniting  elements  of  religion ;  as  the  spires  of 
Baptist  and  Methodist  and  Episcopalian  and 
what  not,  bristle  toward  heaven ;  more  in 
defiance  of  each  other,  often,  than  in  uplifting 
symbol ! 

Meanwhile  the  development  of  natural  science 
— the  vast  increase  of  human  knowledge  in 
matters  relating  to  our  earth  and  to  the  universe, 
to  the  structure  of  animal  and  man,  and  to  all 
the  facts  of  physical  life, — this  has  wrought  a 
change  in  man's  understanding  in  religious  con- 
cerns which  is  vast  beyond  telling.  Added  to 
this,  and  outgrowth  of  it,  is  the  increase  of 
the  critical  faculty,  which  enables  us  to  pick 
flaws  in  the  supposed  Infallible  Record  of  our 
ancient  faith.  And  added  again  to  this  is  the 
manifold  intellectual  influence  of  association 
with  peoples  and  literatures  hitherto  unknown, 
which  predisposes  us  against  any  spirit  of  ex- 
clusive assumption  in  respect  to  any  possession 
of  our  own. 


70  REASON    IN   RELIGION. 

To-day  I  venture  the  statement  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  membership  of  what  are  called 
the  orthodox  Christian  churches,  while  profess- 
ing allegiance  to  the  ancient  creeds  and  perhaps 
voting  against  their  revision,  hold  them  only  by 
such  elastic  use  of  words  as  stretches  them 
beyond  all  legitimate  meaning. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  people  of  the  churches 
have  pretty  generally  outgrown  their  creeds. 
They  do  not  really  believe  in  eternal  damnation  ; 
for  each  man  saves  those  of  his  own  family  when 
they  die,  no  matter  what  their  belief  may  have 
been !  And  they  do  not  really  believe,  as  the 
creeds  mean  it,  "that  there  is  no  salvation  outside 
of  Christ ; "  for  the  heroes  and  martyrs,  like 
Abraham  Lincoln,  whom  they  send  straight  to 
glory,  are  as  often  rationalists  in  religion  as 
they  are  "  Christians  "  in  the  technical  sense  of 
that  word. 

They  do  not  really  believe  in  the  Bible  as  the 
"  only  and  perfect  rule  of  faith  and  practice." 
For  they  no  longer  go  to  it  expecting  to  find 
exact  directions  for  all  moral  procedure  and 
intellectual  definition.  When,  for  instance, 
questions  respecting  the  care  of  the  criminal  or 
vicious  or  defective  classes  of  modern  society 
are  up  for  discussion,  our  most  orthodox  people 
do  not  talk  of  the  way  that  these  things  were 
managed  in  Jesus'  time.  They  proceed  to  make 
up  their  minds  about  these  great  and  perplexing 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  7I 

questions  as  well  as  they  can  by  the  light  of  all 
the  past  and  of  all  the  present  experience  of 
mankind  !  And  so  of  unnumbered  elements  of 
thought  and  conduct.  The  common  sense  of 
men  and  women  dealing  with  daily  problems 
goes  straight  at  them  with  eyes  open,  even 
when  they  are  problems  which  concern  church 
life  and  church  work.  This  common  sense  does 
not  feel  that  in  cases  of  difficulty  and  doubt  it 
must  shut  its  eyes  and  open  the  Bible  at  random, 
as  some  used  to  do,  expecting  a  magical  answer 
to  a  prayer  for  guidance.  No,  average  men 
and  women  are  to-day  so  wise  in  respect  to  the 
practical  Art  of  the  Religious  Life  that  they 
deal  with  facts  and  inferences  at  first  hand,  and 
exercise  their  "faculty  of  judging"  with  great 
freedom ;  with  inconsistent  freedom  for  those 
supposed  to  be  pledged  to  look  backward  only 
for  light  and  help  in  the  conduct  of  life. 

Now,  what  the  practical  sense  of  ordinary 
men  and  women  does  for  the  Art  of  Religion,  the 
educated  reason  is  doing  for  the  science  and 
philosophy  of  religion  !  And  to-day  the  voices 
are  many  and  wondrous  winning  which  fit  the 
Word  of  Faith  to  the  Life  and  Thought  of  this 
new  day  of  growth  ! 

To  those  who  have  never  questioned  the  claims 
to  supernatural  powers  made  for  the  Bible  and 
the  Church,  to  those  whom  the  Time-Spirit 
has  not  yet  touched,  there  is  no  present  need 


72  REASON  IN  RELIGION. 

of  change.  But  all  who  have  a  double  conscious- 
ness of  living  with  one  part  of  their  brain  in 
the  past  and  one  part  in  the  present,  need  to 
come  as  fast  as  may  be  into  this  glad  and  con- 
scious unity  and  freedom.  For  in  so  far  as  an 
outgrown  statement  of  religious  philosophy 
cramps  a  man's  perception  of  the  new  truth 
which  is  constantly  revealed,  that  creed  is  a 
hindrance  to  his  intellectual  growth,  and  there- 
fore a  hindrance  to  the  highest  development  of 
Religion.  And  in  the  same  way,  in  so  far  as  an 
outgrown  statement  of  religious  philosophy 
cramps  a  man's  ideal  of  right,  which  changing 
relations  of  social  order  should  constantly 
enlarge,  that  creed  is  a  hindrance  to  ethical 
progress,  and  so  a  hindrance  to  the  higher 
development  of  Religion.  And  if  an  outgrown 
statement  of  religious  philosophy  is  so  far  out- 
grown that  it  does  not  in  the  least  hamper  a 
man's  thinking  or  doing,  yet  is  still  professed  as 
present  belief,  though  inconsistent  with  both 
his  thinking  and  doing,  then  is  the  soul  of 
Religion  wounded  at  its  centre.  For  only  "he 
that  speaketh  the  truth  in  his  heart  and  speaketh 
the  truth  with  his  lips  ascends  the  Holy  Hill  of 
the  Lord." 

I  wish  I  could  g^ve  you,  friends,  some  adequate 
picture  of  the  joy  of  those  who  have  won  a 
conscious  freedom  of  spirit  in  religious  concerns, 
some  idea  of  the  more  eflFective  power  for  service 


REASON    IN    RELIGION.  73 

of  the  good,  of  those  who  have  squared  their 
religious  philosophy  with  their  intellectual  out- 
look in  all  other  directions. 

A  great  teacher  says  "you  get  the  best  of  a 
book  not  when  it  masters  you,  but  when  you 
master  it."  And  it  is  profoundly  true  that  we 
get  the  best  of  the  Book  we  call  the  Bible,  that 
one  of  the  great  religious  classics  of  the  world 
which  is  most  deeply  inwoven  with  our  civiliza- 
tion, when  we  have  outgrown  all  bondage  to  it 
and  it  has  become  to  us  "  not  dogma,  but  litera- 
ture." And  still  more  of  the  Religion  which  has 
been  based  upon  the  Bible ;  of  that  Christianity 
which  is  our  inheritance, — "  Only  the  free 
possess  the  land."  Much  moral  force,  more 
intellectual  power,  and  an  enormous  amount  of 
affectional  influence  is  worse  than  wasted  when 
intelligent  people  try  to  make  themselves  believe 
what  they  really  cannot,  or  try  to  pour  into  old 
words  meanings  they  were  never  meant  to  hold. 
Do  not  mistake  me  here ;  I  would  use  freely 
every  avenue  toward  God,  every  uplifting  symbol, 
every  heavenward  climbing  trellis  on  which  the 
soul  of  man  has  ascended,  as  worships  as  litera- 
ture, as  song,  as  picture,  as  poem,  as  the  effort 
of  the  imagination  to  portray  the  Hidden  Soul 
of  All.  There  is  no  form  of  worship  but  has 
something  sacred  in  it.  And  the  freer  a  man's 
thought  is  in  religion  the  more  his  religious 
sentiment  can  become  a  citizen  of  all  the  world's 


74  REASON    IN   RELIGION. 

temples.  But  the  beliefs  which  have  hardened 
into  dogmaSy  and  to  which  assent  in  formal 
words  is  required,  these  if  they  have  use  at  all 
are  like  the  Heavenly  Manna  of  the  pretty  story 
of  the  tented  Israelites,  they  must  be  "  gathered 
fresh  every  morning"  or  they  will  cease  to 
nourish. 

Can  you  not  see,  friends,  how  faithless  is  he 
to  the  Ever-living  God  who  dares  not  let  go  of 
one  tradition  of  His  passing  lest  he  lose  God 
himself,  when  He  walks  with  all  who  are  faith- 
ful day  by  day }  Truth  !  Who  dare  say  he  has 
it  when  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  it } 
And  who  shall  dare  reject  hastily  that  which 
bears  good  evidence  of  being  a  part  of  truth, 
because  it  is  revealed  to-day  instead  of  hundreds 
of  years  ago }  Right !  What  man  is  he  who 
knows  all  that  word  means  .^  And  who  shall 
dare,  then,  silence  harshly  the  later  prophets 
who  declare  "  now  is  the  accepted  time,  and  now 
the  day  of  salvation  ?  "     Love! 

•'  Immortal  Love  !     Forever  full, 
Forever  flowing  free, 
Forever  shared,  forever  whole — 
A  never-ebbing  sea  !  " 

Where  is  the  heart  that  really  trusts  but 
knows  that  all  of  Love  that  ever  "  stooped  to 
share  our  sorrow  and  our  joy"  is  here  and  now 
at  hand,  to  comfort  and  to  bless  ? 


REASON   IN   RELIGION.  75 

Be  not  afraid,  O  ye  of  little  faith.  The 
unrest  of  our  intellectual  life  to-day  in  religious 
concerns  is  only  "  Spring's  delicious  trouble  in 
the  ground;"  harbinger  of  a  fuller  harvest  of 
thought  to  be ! 

The  stress  and  strain  of  moral  problems  which 
now  perplex  us  are  but  the  "  growing  pains  "  of 
a  developing  social  order  ! 

The  seeming  "eclipse  of  faith"  which  now 
shadows  some  souls  is  but  the  "  covered 
bridge"  leading  to  more  confident  trust,  to 
brighter  light. 


MAN'S    FREEDOM    AND   RESPONSI- 
BILITY:    OR  CHARACTER  IN 
RELIGION. 


*'  OINCE  mind,"  says  Mr.  Eddy,  "is  concomi- 
*^  tant  with  all  organized  matter  in  all 
nature,  the  degree  and  quality  of  mind  in  each 
organized  being  is  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  sphere  in  which  that  organized  being  is 
intended  to  move.  By  the  operation  of  this 
law,  which  was  not  instituted  by  the  organism 
itself  but  by  a  higher  Power,  it  cannot  swerve 
from  the  orbit  of  its  sphere.  Therefore  human 
liberty,  which  I  believe  to  be  absolute  under 
Divine  Laws  in  its  own  department  of  life,  is 
limited,  like  that  of  all  organized  existence  both 
beneath  and  above  man,  to  the  sphere  of  man's 
own  powers  and  duties.  Liberty  is  a  power 
or  quality  of  the  human  mind ;  and  through  this 
power  of  liberty,  or  the  ability  to  shape  our  own 
action  toward  ends  which  the  reason  perceives 
to  be  good,  comes  the  ability  to  make  progress. 
From  the  godlike  power  of  the  liberty  of  the 
human  mind  proceeds  its  activities.     From  its 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.     77 

activities,  con-jointly  with  the  faculty  of  mem- 
ory, comes  experience;  which,  by  the  aid  of 
reason,  impels  to  improvement.  Without  free- 
dom and  liberty  to  act  as  we  wish  there  could  be 
no  vice  and  no  virtue  among  men.  All  our  act- 
ing and  even  our  thinking  would  in  that  case  be 
but  the  exercise  of  some  arbitrary  power  outside 
our  own  natures.  The  belief  in  the  doctrine 
of  "necessity,"  i.  e.  that  a  human  being  must  do 
what  he  or  she  does  do,  when  carried  out  in  prac- 
tice is,  it  appears  to  me,  one  of  the  most  erroneous 
and  destructive  that  the  mind  can  conceive.  To 
the  mind  accepting  this  doctrine  human  respon- 
sibility has  no  meaning,  virtue  and  vice  have  no 
meaning.  If  the  believer  in  necessity  believes 
in  Justice  then  he  should  believe  that  the  conse- 
quences attendant  on  virtue  and  vice  ought 
to  be  the  same.  Why  should  virtuous  conduct 
be  productive  of  happiness  and  vicious  conduct 
be  productive  of  misery  ?  Why,  if  the  virtuous 
and  vicious  must  do  as  they  do  do,  have 
we  any  need  of  human  tribunals  of  justice, 
of  any  Judges  or  Juries  ?  If  there  is  any  intelli- 
gent Power  above  the  human  it  is  a  pity  the  be- 
lievers in  the  doctrine  of  necessity  cannot  have 
a  chance  to  give  this  High  Power  a  lesson;  for 
evidently,  if  that  doctrine  is  true,  God  is  in 
error ;  for  he  attaches  effects  to  virtuous  action 
which  are  both  pleasant  and  encouraging  to  us 
to  persevere  in  the  guiding  principles  of  con- 


y8     man's  freedom  and  responsibility. 

science,  reason,  and  scientific  research  after  the 
truth. 

No;  rounded  and  full  to  the  measure  of  our 
being  is  the  liberty  accorded  to  man  by  nature ; 
which  is  but  another  name  for  the  Power  above 
all   nature  and  life.     Natural  and  moral  laws 
must  be  obeyed.     Every  man  should  be  edu- 
cated  to   understand,   accept  and   obey  these 
laws.     Man  is  finding  out  the  justice  and  neces- 
sity of  their  existence  by  bitter  experience,  but 
he  is  endowed  with  liberty  to  so  act  as  to  place 
himself  in  harmony  with  these  laws  and  so  en- 
sure his  well  being  and  happiness.      By  study 
and  attention  to  the   law  of   heredity  his  chil- 
dren  may    be   well   constituted;    and   through 
obedience  to  the  law  of  health  man  may  with 
care  be  preserved  to  old  age.     Let  us  see  to 
it  that  every  child  is  educated,  physically,  men- 
tally  and   morally.     Let   us  keep  children   in 
the  path  of  duty.     And  above  all,  if  by  reason  of 
our  own  disobedience  to  God's  laws  severe  con- 
sequences of   suffering  come  upon  us,  let   us 
not  impugn  the  justice  of  God;  but  rather,  exer- 
cising    confidence    and    love,    seek    to    learn 
how  to   avoid   such   calamities    in  the  future. 
The  limitations  or  bounds  of  our  human  free- 
dom and  will  are  as  wide  as  the  world  we  live  in 
and  as  extended  as  are  human  activities  and 
human  relations.     Within  these  bounds  we  are 
responsible  for  evil  conditions  and  to  this  ex- 
tent we  may  co-operate  with  God  in  helping 
mankind  to  attain  more  and  more  perfect  condi- 


MAN  S   FREEDOM   AND    RESPONSIBILITY.        /Q 

tions.  There  is  a  power  in  human  organization, 
and  it  pertains  to  human  liberty  to  organize 
for  good  or  for  evil.  Altho  thought  and  pur- 
pose are  so  free  and  unhindered  in  the  individual 
that  no  other  can  even  know  what  passes  in  a 
man's  mind,  the  consequences  of  acts  resulting 
from  his  most  secret  purposes  are  shared  by- 
all  related  to  him.  No  man's  virtuous  acts 
result  in  good  for  himself  alone;  and  no  man 
can  commit  a  crime  without  injuring  the  well- 
being  of  his  family,  of  the  community  in  which 
he  lives,  and  the  nation  to  which  he  belongs. 
So  that  individually  we  are  affected  by  and 
affect  society.  A  virtuous  or  an  evil  act,  like  a 
pebble  dropped  into  the  calm  surface  of  a  pond, 
sends  an  influence  to  the  outward  verge  of 
the  social  organism. 

"Truly  it  is  said  'By  their  works  ye  shall 
know  them!' 

"We  know  the  nature  of  God  by  His  work  of 
kindness  and  wisdom. 

"  Each  man  is  known  by  the  deeds  of  his  life. 

"I  would  that  the  great  principles  of  justice, 
kindness  and  a  reasonable  charity  to  all  might 
be  universally  recognized,  taught  and  practiced. 

^^^ Noblesse  oblige'  is  the  motto  of  the  Noble 
who,  in  a  conspicuous  position  of  power  and 
dignity,  feels  that  he  must  act  in  harmony  with 
the  grandeur  of  his  opportunity.  True  nobility 
obliges  any  man  set  apart  as  richer,  more  in- 


8o     man's  freedom  and  responsibility. 

telligent  or  more  powerful  in  any  way  than 
his  fellows,  to  act  justly  and  kindly  toward  all 
other  men.  On  the  other  hand  no  one  can 
say  that  an  humble  life  is  not  a  noble  life ;  it  is 
only  a  life  whose  possible  nobleness  has  not 
been  revealed  by  publicity.  And  no  one  can 
tell  what  undeveloped  powers  may  be  in  the 
humblest  man  until  some  great  crisis  of  per- 
sonal or  public  experience  tries  him. 

"  In  every  human  mind  God  has  reserved 
for  himself  a  little  field  of  influence  which  we 
call  Conscience.  Conscience  is  the  Ought  to 
which  every  human  mind  assents.  But  altho' 
God  has  thus  given  us  a  sense  of  what  is  right 
and  wrong  he  does  not  interfere  with  our  free- 
dom under  this  law.  God  permits  us  to  violate 
our  conscience ;  and  He  permits  the  conscience 
itself  to  be  modified  and  affected  in  its  action  by 
influences  of  education,  by  self-reflection  and 
self-discipline,  by  the  influence  of  parents,  of 
teachers,  of  ministers  and  of  all  whom  we  love 
and  respect,  and  by  all  the  varied  effects  of  the 
social  organism  upon  the  individual  life. 

Inasmuch  as  man  is  given  intelligence,  an 
intuitive  sense  of  justice  or  the  law  of  right 
in  the  conscience,  and  his  memory  of  the  experi- 
ence of  good  and  bad  effects  of  actions,  he 
has  great  obligations  laid  upon  him  to  both 
know  and  do  the  right. 

"To   secure   an   enlightened   conscience   we 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.      8 1 

must  have  an  education  in  truth  and  right, 
beginning  with  good  and  intelligent  parents, 
and  continued  by  wider  social  influences,  for 
every  individual. 

"  Let  us  each  and  all  cultivate  in  ourselves 
and  in  our  children  acquaintance  with  the  God 
within  us,  the  conscience  which  frowns  or  smiles 
as  we  do  wrong  or  right !  The  measure  of  our 
intimacy  with  God,  the  character  of  the  princi- 
ples which  guide  us,  are  shown  by  our  daily  life. 
If  reason  and  love  rule  us  it  will  be  revealed 
by  acts  of  kindness,  respect  and  consideration 
toward  our  fellow-men. 

"  And  in  our  relations  with  God  not  only  is 
our  Divine  Father  to  be  honored  by  dedicating 
memorial  churches,  by  grateful  acknowledge- 
ments and  by  that  warmth  of  heart-love  growing 
out  of  our  consciousness  that  we  are  the  objects 
of  His  generous,  disinterested  care,  but  more 
than  all  we  should  honor  Him  to  the  full  power 
of  human  freedom  and  will  by  co-operating  with 
Him  in  advancing  the  well-being  of  humanity. 

"  I  believe  that  we  find  the  law  of  human  con- 
duct in  the  revelation  of  the  will  of  God  as 
made  in  the  laws  which  govern  man's  nature. 
Our  liberty  is  restrained  and  limited  in  matters 
of  physical  life.  The  physical  laws  of  nature 
are  indeed  protective  and  show  the  paternal 
character  of  God,  as  upon  obedience  to  them 
depends   our   safety,  even   life  itself.     And   it 


82     man's  freedom  and  responsibility. 

is  becoming  almost  universally  accepted  as  a 
fundamental  truth  that  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
the  moral  nature  constitutes  virtue  and  con- 
fers the  happiness  which  alone  follows  upon 
virtue. 

"  In  other  words,  God  has  so  constituted  man 
that  the  performance  of  his  highest  duties,  when 
actuated  by  the  highest  principles  of  his  nature, 
secures  to  him  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness 
possible  to  him  in  this  world. 

"  A  good  and  virtuous  human  being  never 
enquires  *  Is  life  worth  living.?'  He  lives  hap- 
pily from  day  to  day.  A  good  and  intelligent 
man  is  sincere,  kind  and  charitable  toward  his 
fellows ;  not  for  the  sake  of  any  return  from 
man,  but  because  he  feels  he  ought  so  to  act ; 
and  because  God  has  so  constituted  him  that 
his  own  highest  happiness  and  dignity  are  sub- 
served by  cultivating  these  virtuous  actions. 
We  have  the  power  to  do  good  in  this  world 
or  to  work  evil.  Shall  we  not  make  ourselves 
coadjutors  with  God  to  work  with  Him  to  make 
ourselves  and  others  good  and  noble,  since  He 
permits  us  so  to  carry  out  His  kind  intents  ? 
Whilst  God  through  and  by  His  laws  sustains 
all  things,  man  is  specially  endowed  with  free- 
dom and  power  to  progress,  to  improve  and  to 
perfect,  or  to  retard,  corrupt  and  destroy.  Only 
by  obedience  to  the  laws  of  God,  as  shown  in 
nature,  and   in   natural   human  relations,  may 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.      83 

we  co-operate  with  our  Divine  Father  in  doing 
good. 

"And  if  to  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow 
where  only  one  has  grown  before  is  commenda- 
ble, how  much  more  so  is  it  to  discover  and 
exemplify  and  teach  a  virtue  lost  sight  of  or 
before  unknown !  And  equally  commendable  is 
it  to  brighten  up  old  and  accepted  virtues  and 
to  place  them  in  a  better  light,  that  they  may 
appear  more  attractive  !  " 

In  arranging  the  series  of  initial  services  in 
this  Chapel  we  have  tried  to  present,  as  clearly 
as  might  be,  in  the  sketchy  and  incomplete 
manner  alone  possible  when  traversing  so  wide 
a  range  of  thought,  the  spirit  and  tendency  out 
of  which  this  movement  toward  religious 
association  sprang,  and  toward  which  it  must,  if 
consistent  with  its  founder's  wishes,  develop. 
And  to-day  in  seeking  to  mass  in  one  topic  the 
vast  double  problem  of  the  personal  and  the  race 
element  in  morals  we  must  limit  ourselves  to  the 
merest  hint. 

The  question  of  man's  freedom  of  will  forms 
a  vital  part  of  ethical  enquiry.  The  problem 
of  how  far  a  human  being  is  responsible  for  his 
actions,  lies  at  the  basis  of  personal  condemnation 
or  praise,  or  personal  example  and  appeal.  And 
how  far  the  actions  of  a  man  witness  to  his 
faith  or  faithlessness  is  indeed  a  pivotal  question 
in  religion. 


84     man's  freedom  and  responsibility. 

To  our  friend,  Mr.  Eddy,  these  two  questions 
were  settled  so  far  as  he  apprehended  their 
meaning.  He  had  outgrown  the  "necessarian- 
ism  "  of  the  balder  Calvinism  :  he  never  accepted 
the  more  complex  and  subtle  "  necessarianism  " 
of  certain  scientific  teaching.  To  him  the  appeal 
of  religion  seemed  truly  philosophic  and  all- 
prevailing.  He  did  not  believe  with  the  old 
theology  that  God  had  "elected"  any  to  damnation 
nor  to  glory  ;  but  that  each  person  "  must  work 
out  his  own  salvation."  He  did  not  believe,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  the  theory  of  "  evolution  " 
made  the  will  of  a  man  of  no  effect,  that  "heredity" 
and  "environment"  relieved  any  one  of  the  awful 
responsibility  which  attaches  to  man  as  a  moral 
being, — a  being  who  may  do  right  and  who  may 
do  wrong  as  he  himself  wills.  Mr.  Eddy's 
statement  of  human  free  will  and  liberty  may 
seem  to  many  extreme;  but  in  the  main  it  is 
that  which  has  been  the  keynote  of  every  re- 
ligion which  has  nerved  men  to  the  highest 
moral  advance. 

The  philosopher  may  say  with  Emerson  when 
he  philosophizes,  "  if  you  wish  to  reform  a  man 
you  must  begin  with  his  grandfather,"  and  so 
he  will  state  a  terrible  truth,  and  an  encouraging 
one  as  well.  But  the  preacher  will  say  with 
Emerson  when  he  preaches, — 

*'  When  Duty  whispers  low,  '  Thou  must,' 
The  youth  replies,  '  I  can.'  " 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.      85 

The  scientist  may  say  with  the  witty  Dr. 
Holmes,  "  every  disease,  physical  and  moral,  may 
be  cured  if  the  physician  is  only  called  in  time ; 
but  *  in  time '  is  often  several  generations  before 
the  patient  is  born."  And  here  again  the  hard 
but  helpful  truth  is  spoken.  But  the  religious 
teacher  leaps  over  and  through  these  facts  of  the 
effect  of  a  man's  inherited  and  surrounding 
circumstance  upon  his  nature,  and  says,  "  Be  ye 
perfect  here  and  now."  "  If  thy  right  eye  offend 
thee  pluck  it  out."  "Behold  if  any  one  shall 
apply  himself  unto  virtue  I  have  not  seen  the 
day  when  he  was  not  sufficient  unto  the  task." 
And  there  is  something  in  all  of  us  which 
responds  right  nobly  to  the  call  to  master  all 
that  is  evil,  both  within  and  without.  Whatever 
may  be  the  inferences  from  scientific  studies  in 
some  directions,  whatever  the  effect  of  the 
Whole  upon  the  Part  may  seem  at  times  to  be, 
there  is  an  indestructible  belief  in  us  that  in  the 
soul  of  man  is  a  power  of  self-betterment. 

Dr.  Maudsley  himself,  whose  acute  observation 
sometimes  seems  to  make  of  man  but  a  puppet 
of  circumstance,  has  given  us  that  noble  book 
which  so  reinforces  religious  appeal,  "  Responsi- 
bility in  Mental  Disease."  A  book  which  in  its 
very  title  bears  witness  to  something  in  man 
which  can  be  appealed  to  confidently  for  self-help 
and  for  world-help.  And  this  something  in  man, 
which   men  even  like   Dr.  Maudsley  believe  in 


86      man's  freedom  and  responsibility. 

appealing  to,  lies  at  the  basis  of  morals,  both  in 
the  personal  and  social  significance  of  the  word. 
The  moral  law  dances  off  into  mist  if  there  is  no 
moral  nature  in  man  which  may  consciously  and 
of  purpose  obey  such  law.  And  whatever  may 
be  our  philosophy  of  ethics,  however  we  may 
define  the  genesis  of  the  moral  nature  or  write 
its  history,  we  may  be  all  agreed  in  one  practical 
point,  namely,  that  somehow,  and  somewhere, 
and  sometime,  man  found  out  that  there  were 
such  things  as  Right  and  Wrong,  and  that  he 
Ought  to  choose  the  Right  and  flee  the  Wrong 
with  all  his  heart  and  mind  and  strength.  And 
if  he  Ought,  then  he  can ;  with  fear  and  trembling 
may  be,  with  weakness  and  failure  often,  with 
foolishness  of  blunder  and  half  understanding  of 
ignorance  always,  but  with  growing  power  and 
success !  And  what  is  true  of  mankind  as  a 
whole  is  true  of  each  man  and  woman  and  child. 
One  man's  possibility  of  virtue  may  be  so  far 
short  of  another's,  that  no  one  praises  it  as  virtue 
at  all.  But  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  one  may  begin 
to  climb ;  and  must  begin  there,  if  anywhere,  if 
he  is  born  there.  And  if  one  nears  the  top  he 
must  still  climb ;  and  perhaps  the  harder  that 
the  summit  grows  steep  and  rugged,  and  the  sun 
hot  with  mid-day  strength.  And  in  spite  of 
inherited  beliefs  which  have  blurred  the  doctrine 
of  man's  freedom  and  responsibility  toward  the 
moral  law,  in  spite  of  new  ideas  of  "environment " 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.      d>7 

and  new  "data  of  ethics,"  there  is  a  growing 
conviction  that  "conduct  is  three-fourths  of 
life,"  that  character  is  the  main  thing,  that  to  be 
good  is  to  be  Godlike,  and  that  goodness  is  the 
only  essential  of  true  religion.  Many  who  show 
by  their  judgments  and  practical  living  that  they 
really  believe  all  this,  do  not  yet  consciously 
see  what  that  belief  implies  in  respect  to  the 
philosophic  statement  of  religion  in  its  personal 
and  world  aspects.  But  "  all  the  churches  are 
growing  practical,"  we  all  say.  What  does  that 
mean  }  Simply  that  all  serious-minded  people, 
whatever  their  professed  dogmas  may  be,  are 
turning  their  attention  more  and  more  toward 
making  people  better  and  wiser  and  happier  and 
freer  from  bad  conditions.  And  the  growth  of 
what  we  call  the  "  liberal "  spirit  in  religion  is  as 
much  due  to  this  practical  tendency,  to  this 
increased  devotion  to  conduct,  as  to  any  intel- 
lectual changes. 

Universalism  was  a  moral  revolt  from  Cal- 
vinism. "Could  God  be  Father,  as  Jesus 
said  He  was,  and  damn  His  children.?" 
This  was  the  question  the  early  Universalists 
asked ;  and  to  ask  it  was  to  answer  it  sooner  or 
later  with  the  Quaker  poet,  "Nothing  can  be 
good  in  God  which  evil  is  in  me."  And  Uni- 
tarianism,  with  all  its  refinement  of  taste,  with 
all  its  literary  exclusiveness  and  intellectual 
tendency  of  influence,  was  pre-eminently  a  vindi- 


88      man's  freedom  and  responsibility. 

cation  of  and  an  appeal  to  the  moral  nature  of 
man.  The  Friends,  with  their  simple  gospel  of 
fidelity  to  the  "  inner  light " — the  Friends,  whose 
saintliness  has  blessed  a  world  which  never 
knew  them, — the  Friends,  also,  bore  their  testi- 
mony to  the  authenticity  of  the  Soul's  message 
from  the  Infinite  in  a  beauty  of  holiness  which 
has  leavened  great  masses  of  dull  and  bestial 
life  in  this  and  other  lands  !  From  many  quarters 
of  the  religious  world  the  news  has  spread  that 
it  is  not  technical  "conversion"  which  insures 
soul-health  ;  that  still  less  does  assent  to  dogmas 
prove  that  a  man  is  citizen  of  the  heavenly  king- 
dom ;  but  that  this  rather  is  true,  whoso  reveals 
soul-health  in  a  pure  life  **void  of  offence," 
warm  and  helpful  toward  all  good  on  this  earth, 
is  saved  already  and  stands  a  king  and  a  priest  to 
God.  The  great  anti-slavery  movement  in 
America  contributed  wonderfully  to  the  growth 
of  this  idea  of  character  as  the  real  test  and  aim 
in  religion.  It  taught  a  whole  great  people  to 
see  that  whatever  may  be  the  false  show  of 
things  when  "Right  is  on  the  scaffold  and  Wrong 
is  on  the  throne,"  still  '*  Right  is  Right,  and 
right  the  day  must  win  ;  to  doubt  it  is  disloyalty, 
to  falter  is  a  sin." 

To-day  it  is  greatly  needed  for  the  better  and 
quicker  helping  of  men  and  women  enslaved  to 
evil  and  ignorance  that  the  mighty  powers  of 
the  Christian  church  should  be  liberated  fully 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.      89 

and  consciously  from  all  bondage ;  both  that 
which  cramps  the  intellectual  growth,  and  that 
which  fetters  the  moral  sense.  It  is  not  enough 
that  with  a  confused  and  confusing  double  vision 
the  great  body  of  the  Church  profess  that 
salvation  is  of  the  next  world,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  acts  as  if  salvation  were  of  this  world. 
This  inconsistency,  useful  as  it  is,  is  but 
the  bridge  from  one  point  of  clear  vision 
to  another.  What  is  wanted  is  that  with 
no  ifs  and  buts,  and  with  no  cowardice  or 
shrinking,  men  and  women  everywhere  should 
declare  that  he  is  saved  who  is  good  and  whose 
life  is  helpful  to  all  the  better  side  of  other's 
lives ;  and  that  he  is  in  danger  here  and  now 
who  is  cruel  or  selfish  or  vicious,  who  is  narrow 
in  sympathy  or  low  in  aim.  What  is  needed 
above  all  things  to  strengthen  and  concentrate 
the  influence  of  the  better  life  in  every  com- 
munity against  the  evil  in  that  community 
is  the  feeling,  united  and  powerful,  that  men 
can  make  themselves  better,  and  that  to 
seek  and  follow  the  good  is  the  one  vital  thing 
in  life.  And  the  hope  is  that  this  little  effort 
towards  religious  association  here  may  empha- 
size that  truth. 

It  seems  to  us  that  in  an  age  when,  by  reason 
of  new  ways  of  looking  at  things  and  new 
wealth  of  knowledge,  all  preconceived  notions 
stand    on    trial  for  life     before    the    enlight- 


90        MAN  S   FREEDOM   AND   RESPONSIBILITY. 

ened  judgment,  they  weight  themselves  as 
foolishly,  as  needlessly,  who  stop  to  ask  liberty 
of  the  past  to  study  freely  either  the  past  or 
present.  It  seems  to  us  that  in  an  age,  when, 
by  reason  of  changes  in  social  order  coming  with 
bewildering  rapidity,  every  old  maxim  of  con- 
duct must  be  tested  by  wholly  new  conditions, 
they  confuse  their  moral  judgment  and  lessen 
their  moral  power  as  dangerously,  as  unwarrant- 
ably, who  defer  to  aught  save  a  free  and  reverent 
listening  for  to-day's  revelation  of  Right.  We 
want  here  to  call  together  a  company  of  people 
whose  watchword,  confessed  and  ringing  with 
confident  assertion,  shall  be,  "Character  the  aim 
and  test  in  Religion ;  to  make  men  good  and 
happy  the  business  of  a  Church." 

And  though  this  little  Chapel  never  assume 
the  Christian  badge,  and  though  it  were  denied 
the  sympathy  of  every  Christian  church  in  this 
community,  if  it  were  truly  bound  in  deed  as  in 
word  to  this  gospel,  it  would  have  more  right  to 
claim  kinship  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus  than  any 
Church  amongst  us  which  puts  the  creed  above 
the  life  and  sneers  at  "mere  Morality."  Listen 
to  the  crack  of  the  whip  with  which  Jesus  drove 
the  moneychangers  from  the  Temple!  Hear 
the  terrible  denunciations  he  sent  to  the  very 
centre  of  the  "orthodox"  church  of  his  day 
against  the  pretences  of  those  who  "made  long 
prayers,  yet  devoured  widows'  houses,"  who  put 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.      91 

the  profession  of  faith  above  the  doing  of  the 
simple  right !  Listen  to  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  which  is  extolled  by  thousands  who  stone 
the  new  prophets  who  seek  to  make  its  lessons 
real  to-day  for  to-day's  needs  and  opportunities ! 
Hundreds  of  thoughtful  people  now  find  them- 
selves out  of  touch  with  the  great  body  of  the 
Christian  Church  because  it  is  infidel  to  the 
teaching  of  him  whom  it  calls  Lord  and  Master, 
infidel  to  him  whose  ethical  passion  was  as  a 
consuming  flame  against  all  that  hurt  the  soul, 
infidel  to  him  whose  love  for  man,  his  brother, 
matched  his  trust  in  God  his  Father.  And 
thousands  of  poor  and  sorrowful  and  burdened 
and  sinful  souls  feel  themselves  neglected  to-day 
by  the  great  body  of  the  Christian  Church  because 
— while  the  rich  and  successful  and  wise  are 
ministered  to — they  hear  no  helpful  gospel.  It 
is  a  pitiful  commentary  on  the  life  of  the  Church 
that  on  Sunday  only  are  its  chief  Temples  lighted 
and  warmed,  and  then  for  the  few,  while  the 
multitude  are  won  to  the  haunts  of  vice  by 
every-day  cheer  and  fraternal  feeling !  I  do  not 
speak  in  any  bitterness.  This  is  no  question  of 
"Orthodox"  and  "Liberal."  This  is  a  question 
of  religious  or  not  religious,  faithful  or  faithless, 
believing  or  infidel !  He  who  puts  aught  before 
the  doing  of  one's  duty  here  and  now,  hides  the 
entrance  to  the  Holy  of  Holies  !  He  who  puts 
aught  before  love  to  his  brother  man,  even  that 


92        MAN  S    FREEDOM    AND    RESPONSIBILITY. 

which  he  calls  Love  to  God,  veils  that  East 
window  of  the  soul  which  earliest  lets  in  the 
light  of  day ! 

The  business  of  a  Church  is  to  make  true  and 
noble  men  and  women.  If  it  can  not  do  that  it 
has  no  call  to  existence  in  a  world  where  the 
faithful  must  forever  war  against  the  hosts  of 
evil !  The  office  of  Religion  in  the  heart  of  each 
man  and  woman  is  to  cleanse  from  bodily  sins, 
to  purify  the  heart,  to  uplift  and  strengthen  the 
moral  nature.  If  that  which  one  calls  his 
Religion  does  not  do  these  things  he  is  mistaken 
about  it  and  the  Spirit  of  Life  is  not  in  him.  Said 
Dr.  Channing — whom  we  honor  here  with 
Emerson,  High  Priest  of  True  Religion,  and 
Parker,  the  fiery-hearted  and  devout  Reformer — 
"The  true  love  of  God  is  the  same  thing  with 
the  love  of  virtue,  rectitude  and  goodness."  And 
again,  "The  grand  heresy  is  to  substitute 
anything,  whether  creed  or  form  or  church,  for 
character^  for  goodness,  which  is  essentially, 
everlastingly  and  by  its  own  nature,  lovely, 
glorious,  divine ! " 

Said  Charles  Darwin — Servant  in  Truth's 
Temple,  and  so  honored  here  with  the  rest  of 
God's  Teachers — said  Charles  Darwin  when 
indicating  his  agnostic  position  in  respect  to 
the  Mysteries  of  Life — "  But  at  least  a  man  can 
do  his  duty." 

And  at  most,  we  ask,  what  can  a  man  do  more } 


man's  freedom  and  responsibility.      93 

"  That  man  is  great, — and  he  alone 
Who  serves  a  greatness  not  his  own 

For  neither  praise  nor  pelf : 
Content  to  know  and  be  unknown, 
Whole  in  himself. 

'*  Strong  is  that  man,  he  only  strong, 
To  whose  well  ordered  will  belong 

For  service  and  delight, 
All  powers  that  in  the  face  of  Wrong 

Establish  Right. 

**  And  free  is  he,  and  only  he 
Who  from  his  tyrant  passions  free 

By  Fortune  undismayed, 
Hath  power  upon  himself  to  be 
By  himself  obeyed. 

'*  If  such  a  man  there  be,  where  e'er 
Beneath  the  sun  and  moon  he  fare,  ' 

He  cannot  fare  amiss. 
Great  Nature  hath  him  in  her  care; 

Her  cause  is  his. 

"  He  holds  by  everlasting  law 

Which  neither  chance  nor  change  can  flaw; 

His  steadfast  course  is  one 
With  whatsoever  forces  draw 

The  Ages  on." 


FELLOWSHIP  IN  RELIGION. 


"  'T'HE  most  effective  method,"  said  Mr.  Eddy, 
'■■  *'  of  sustaining  any  system  of  thought  or 
religion  is  organization;  which  includes  the 
teaching  of  children  by  all  parents  and  teachers 
of  what  is  esteemed  by  them  to  be  the  truth. 
Recognizing  that  the  highest  well-being  of  all 
demands  of  each  a  pure,  just  and  honorable  life, 
we  deem  it  for  the  best  interests  of  society  that 
men  unite  in  the  formation  of  religious  associa- 
tions for  co-operation  in  the  extension  of 
knowledge  and  virtue.  It  is  necessary  for  our 
growth  that  the  best  guiding  principles  of 
religion  and  morality  should  be  fixed  in  our 
minds.  And  to  this  end  it  is  necessary  that  we 
study  and  reflect  upon  them,  repeating  them  in 
various  forms  of  expression ;  but  trying  always 
to  convey  the  essence  of  the  principles  by  which 
we  should  be  governed.  Especially  is  this  course 
of  frequent  repetitions  of  accepted  truths 
necessary  in  regard  to  the  education  of  children. 
Parents  should  feel  bound  to  bring  up  their 
children  in  such  manner  as  will  ensure  their  own 
well-being  in  this  world,  and  that  of  all  who  may 


FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION.  95 

be  connected  with  them  in  close  relations  of  life. 
And  they  should  be  taught  an  ever-widening 
interest  in  mankind,  until  they  can  say  as  did 
that  noble  man,  Thomas  Paine,  'The  world  is 
my  country;  my  countrymen  are  all  mankind.' 

"We  are  beginning  to  realize  and  use  our 
God-given  right  of  soul  liberty  to  investigate 
and  discover  all  of  truth  as  best  we  may.  May 
each  Christian  sect  claim  and  maintain  its  right 
to  differ,  according  to  its  honest  convictions, 
from  all  other  Christian  sects.  And  may  all 
those  outside  of  any  church  organization  claim 
and  maintain  entire  freedom  of  thinking  and  of 
speech  on  these  important  questions  of  religion, 
on  all  suitable  occasions.  Clear  convictions  of 
the  truth  can  only  be  arrived  at  by  study  of  facts 
and  by  serious  reflection ;  and  when  an  individual 
claims  to  be  convinced,  or  to  have  real  convic- 
tions, it  is  not  in  order  for  another  to  question 
his  results  so  far  as  they  pertain  to  himself. 
There  is  great  diversity  of  mind  and  heart ;  and 
this  is  well.  The  honest  and  true  convictions 
of  each  and  every  thoughtful  mind  must  be 
arrived  at  by  and  through  its  own  mental  labor. 
Our  rule  should  be  to  adopt  nothing  which  has 
not  been  passed  through  the  analysis  of  the 
laboratory  of  our  own  minds.  In  the  religious 
and  moral  duties  the  mental  inspiration  of  the 
day  and  hour  in  which  we  live  will  suffice  for  the 
needs  and  demands  of  that  day  and  hour.     But 


96  FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION. 

the  progressive  changes  of  the  human  mind  are 
and  ought  to  be  guarded  and  slow. 

"  Our  creed  should  be  made  up  of  true 
principles  of  thought  and  conduct ;  and  I  see  no 
objection  to  noting  down  in  the  form  of  con- 
stitutional principles,  or  a  creed  of  beliefs,  the 
honest  convictions  of  to-day  by  those  who  would 
form  a  Religious  Society. 

"  Why  can  not  all  stand  on  a  platform  of  the 
truest  and  noblest  principles  the  head  and  heart 
can  conceive  of  in  our  day  and  generation  ?  We 
may  do  this,  and  yet  admit  that  there  is  nothing 
now  conceived  in  science,  morals  and  religion 
which  may  not  in  time  be  improved  upon.  We 
should  hesitate  to  affirm  finalities  in  regard  even 
to  the  most  rational  of  the  accepted  truths  of 
the  hour  in  which  we  live.  Like  time,  the 
natural  course  of  our  intelligence  and  knowledge 
is  onward,  not  backward,  nor  even  standing  still. 
We  write  our  creeds  to-day^  comprising  the 
highest  principles  of  action  towards  God  and 
man  that  we  can  conceive  of.  We  crystallize  in 
our  moral  and  religious  beliefs  the  best  thoughts, 
the  noblest  truths  of  to-day.  And  let  us  have  a 
prominent  article  of  our  faith  that  as  human 
thought  and  experience  develop  new  truth  we 
may  add  to  or  modify  our  old  articles  of  faith. 
When  our  creeds  perfect  us  then  they  may  be 
considered  as  finalities. 

"  We  believe  in  the  divine  influence  of  intelli- 


FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION.  97 

gence  and  nobility  of  mind,  and  of  the  unselfish 
emotions  of  the  heart,  wherever  found.  And  in 
a  religious  society  we  should  have  no  desire  to 
diminish  in  any  sect  the  religious  sentiment  or 
devotional  spirit ;  far  otherwise !  We  should 
aim  to  increase  and  purify  this  spirit  of  devotion 
by  presenting  a  truer  object  of  inspiration,  and 
by  giving  sound  reasons  for  the  cultivation  of 
the  religious  sentiment." 

We  close  here  our  quotations  from  Mr.  Eddy's 
writings. 

Fellowship  in  Religion.  Our  subject  may 
well  be  divided  into  three  parts:  Fellowships 
Fellowship  in  Religion^  Fellowship  within  and 
without  Oicr  Religious  Home. 

Human  Fellowship,  in  the  broadest  sense  of 
the  words,  rests  upon  the  great  fact  of  life  that 
the  things  wherein  men  are  alike  are  greater 
than  the  things  wherein  they  differ.  Beneath 
all  divisions  into  class  and  color  and  race  and 
condition  we  strike  the  bedrock  of  human  unity. 
Just  as  beneath  all  the  multiform  shows  of 
Nature  we  strike,  if  we  go  deep  enough,  a  unity 
of  law  and  substance.  ''The  solidarity  of  the 
human  race "  is  the  ethical  phrasing  of  the 
science  of  evolution  :  and  it  is  the  modern  trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament  gospel,  "  We  are 
all  members  one  of  another." 

Fellowship  in  Religion  is  the  recognition  of  the 
unity  of  mankind  in  its  highest  life. 

8 


98  FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION. 

Fellowship  within  our  religious  home :  Fel- 
lowship without  our  religious  home :  What  do 
these  words  mean  ?     Let  us  see. 

Take  a  score  of  the  most  devout  and  intelli- 
gent men  and  women  from  as  many  different 
Christian  sects  in  America,  and  set  them  all  to 
talking  of  the  "  Unity  of  the  Spirit  which  is  the 
bond  of  peace  "  in  Religion,  and  they  will  very 
likely  all  talk  much  of  the  underlying  likeness  of 
all  faiths :  and  of  the  **  sympathy  of  Religions," 
at  least  within  Christian  lines.  But  when  the 
talk  is  ended  each  will  go  his  way,  labeling 
himself  as  precisely  as  ever  with  his  badge  of 
denominationalism,  and  seeking  to  fasten  it  upon 
others  as  before.  Get  together  "  Union  Meet- 
ings "  by  the  dozen  all  over  this  city  during  the 
"  Week  of  Prayer,"  and  everybody  who  speaks 
or  listens  will  be  glad  of  the  fraternal  touch 
with  neighbor  sect.  But  when  the  set  meetings 
are  over,  no  Calvinist  Baptist  may  admit  the 
more  readily  to  his  "  Communion  "  privilege  his 
devout  brother  Congregationalist ;  no  Presby- 
terian will  abate  his  "  Confession  "  of  one  hard 
dogma :  and  not  a  Methodist  will  perhaps  seem 
less  clannish  than  before. 

Call  a  meeting  of  the  "  Evangelical  Alliance  " 
with  its  motto,  '*  In  Essentials  Unity  :  In  Non- 
essentials Diversity:  In  all  Things  Charity." 
And  the  Unity  and  Charity  will  be  emphasized, 
the  divisions  resulting  from  diversity   will  be 


FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION.  99 

obscured  as  the  air  rings  with  the  words,  "  The 
things  we  hold  together;"  "Our  Common 
faith  ; "  "A  united  front  to  error  aud  sin,"  and 
the  like.  But  straightway  the  meeting  is  over 
no  Episcopalian  will  open  his  pulpit  to  the  most 
saintly  brother  unless  ordained  in  his  way ;  and 
not  one  may  seem  the  more  inclined  to  organic 
union  if  it  involves  any  sacrifice  of  his  sect  pre- 
judice. 

Says  the  good  Methodist  brother  in  the  quaint 
story,  talking  of  "  Christian  Union  : "  "  It's  a 
shame  for  Christians  to  fight  and  quarrel  so, 
cutting  themselves  up  into  little  knots  and  rings! 
Why  can't  they  all  use  their  common  sense  and 
be  good,  straightforward  Methodists  t "  And  in 
less  transparent  simplicity  most  sectarians  show 
that  their  idea  of  religious  unity  is  for  everybody 
to  adopt  their  views  ! 

Now  why  is  this  t  Not  that  these  people  are 
hypocrites  or  fools.  It  is  more  than  all  else 
because  the  sect  feeling,  large  and  small,  is  the 
home  feeling  in  religion.  It  may  be  a  palace 
home  of  grand  proportions,  even  all  the  broad 
Christian  Communion.  And  then,  however  a 
man  may  .like  to  travel  in  foreign  lands  of  faith, 
and  taste  the  food  of  Confucius,  Bhudda  or 
another,  he  is  glad  always  to  get  home  again ; 
and  likes  best  to  stay  where  all  high  thoughts 
and  aspirations  translate  themselves  in  Christian 
terms. 


ICX)  FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION. 

The  home,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be  a  small 
cottage  of  faith,  even  one  so  tiny  that  the 
essential  thing  seems  the  quantity  of  water  it 
takes  for  baptism,  or  the  shape  of  the  garment 
worn  by  its  minister,  it  is  still,  perhaps  all  the 
more  dearly.  Home.  And  a  very  short  visit  to 
a  very  near  neighbor's  house  of  worship  makes 
the  timid  homekeeper  fearful  lest  all  should  not 
go  well  in  his  absence  ! 

The  various  sects  of  Christendom  represent 
the  natural  differences  in  men's  ways  of  looking 
at  things  crystallized  into  institutions  by  the 
theologians.  And  where  one  will  go  and  stay 
to  find  a  home  is  determined  chiefly  either  by 
early  training  or  temperamental  affinity. 

No  one  is  obliged  by  any  dictum  of  conscience 
to  leave  a  house  of  faith  which  suits  him,  and  go 
off  on  a  voyage  of  religious  exploration  to  settle 
in  some  unfamiliar  Temple-House ;  or  perhaps 
seek  his  Trysting-Place  with  the  Spirit  only  in 
solitary  places,  when  he  really  belongs  with  the 
rest  of  the  folks.  The  only  essential  for  growth 
in  human  Fellowship  in  Religion  is  that  one 
look  wide  enough  abroad  to  see  that  others  can 
rightfully  feel  at  home  in  those  unfamiliar 
Temple-Houses,  and  others  still  in  the  solitary 
wild  meet  God  face  to  face !  Yes,  more  is 
essential : — That  one  study  bravely  enough  and 
deeply  enough  to  make  sure  that  he  really 
belongs  in  the  House  he  dwells  in ;  and  that  it  is 


FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION.  lOI 

large  enough  to  let  him  grow  all  he  can  ;  and  that 
it  does  not  crowd  his  neighbor's  House  unfairly ! 

Looking  over  the  whole  field  of  Religious 
thought  and  effort  in  America,  to-day,  there 
seem  to  be  four  grand  divisions  sufficiently 
differentiated,  in  large  outline,  to  make  separate 
organization  justifiable. 

These  are  the  Trinitarian  or  Evangelical 
Christian  :  the  Unitarian  Christian  :  the  Ration- 
alistic Theists  with  Free  Religious  bases  of 
Union  :  and  the  Ethical  Culturists  who  aim  to 
put  all  their  affirmation  of  the  Highest  in  Life 
in  terms  of  such  abstract  reserve  that  the  con- 
scientious Agnostic  may  use  them.  The  main 
army  of  Christians  is  of  course  that  marked 
"  Evangelical."  It  is  an  army  doing  grand 
service  in  countless  directions  of  devotion  to 
God  and  service  to  man.  It  saves  and  helps 
innumerable  poor  and  feeble  and  defective  of 
the  children  of  men,  otherwise  orphaned  and 
desolate.  It  makes  warm  hearthfire  Altars  of 
Worship  for  multitudes  otherwise  unsheltered 
and  unblest.  Whether  or  not  its  leaders,  or  its 
rank  and  file  always  name  themselves  sincerely 
is  not  our  question  to-day.  But  granted  that  all 
is  honest  and  true  in  the  main  creed  of  this  main 
army  of  Christendom,  are  all  the  sub-divisions  of 
creed  which  separate  this  main  army  itself  into 
sections,  often  antagonistic  sections,  either 
necessary  or  useful  ? 


102  FELLOWSHIP    IN   RELIGION. 

I  cannot  think  they  are.  If  Union  Meetings 
and  Evangelical  Alliances  do  so  much  good,  if 
dwelling  upon  the  things  which  unite  is  found 
so  helpful  now  and  then  in  meetings,  and  always 
in  humanitarian  work,  why  in  the  name  of 
common  sense  and  business  economy  of  force, 
cannot  the  organization  be  upon  the  large  and 
not  the  small  things  of  faith  ?  How  many  a 
struggling  little  church  in  some  small  place  is 
hopelessly  broken  down  by  the  opposition  of 
another,  of  an  Evangelical  sect  so  like  its  own 
that  one  accustomed  to  large  views  of  Religion 
must  use  a  microscope  to  see  the  difference. 
How  much  force  so  sadly  needed  in  helping 
sinful,  struggling,  despairing  men  and  women 
toward  some  Worship  and  Goodness  is  spent  in 
keeping  the  denominational  fences  in  repair. 
Fences  within  the  Evangelical  lines,  remember, 
and  useful  if  at  all  in  keeping  apart  those  so 
nearly  related  they  seem  to  belong  together.  I 
believe  if  that  spirit  of  limited  Fellowship  in 
Religion,  which  finds  expression  in  great  union 
meetings  and  efforts  to  do  good  within  the  Evan- 
gelical lines,  could  but  rule  the  daily  life  and 
official  action  of  the  Orthodox  leaders,  the  result 
would  be  a  revival  of  real  religion  in  this 
country,  and  in  the  whole  Christian  world, 
beyond  anything  yet  experienced,  and  would  be 
helpful  to  a  wider  circle  of  people  than  any 
other  one  thing.     By  such  a  bond  of  union  upon 


FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION.  IO3 

the  simple  elements  of  faith  common  to  all 
Evangelical  Christians  there  could  be  sub-division 
of  that  vast  army  for  Service  and  not  for  idle  creed 
tinkering  ;  and,  while  keeping  all  the  true  home- 
feeling,  that  "more  stately  mansion  of  the  soul" 
might  shelter  millions  now  unchurched. 

The  Unitarian  Christian  marks  a  departure 
from  the  Evangelical  creed,  even  when  reduced 
to  its  simplest  terms,  so  great  that  it  rightfully 
justifies  separate  housekeeping.  The  rule  of 
all  righteous  organization  of  mankind  is 
"first  pure"  and  just,  "then  peaceable." 
The  rule  of  helpful  religious  homebuilding  is 
first  sincere,  and  suited  to  personal  needs,  and 
then  beautiful  with  fraternal  hospitality.  The 
vast  body  of  orthodox  Christianity,  even  if  it 
were  bound  together  by  the  large  rather  than 
the  small  elements  of  faith,  would  still  feel  cold 
and  dreary  if  aught  should  separate  from 
allegiance  to  Christ  as  the  Divine  incarnation. 
The  Unitarian  would  find  it  equally  impossible 
to  cumber  with  such  mysticism  his  human 
discipleship  of  the  Elder  Brother,  his  simple 
faith  in  Christianity  as  our  special  revelation  of 
the  Universal  Religion,  and  the  world's  most 
perfect  and  helpful  faith.  Therefore  the  Evan- 
gelical and  the  Unitarian  belong  in  separate 
although  not  in  hostile  households. 

The  Unitarian  Christian  body,  counting  the 
central  majority  of  its  membership  as  its  most 


104  FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION. 

characteristic  expression,  is  that  which  to-day  in 
America  represents,  I  believe,  the  most  widely 
and  practically  useful  liberal  element  in  Religion. 
Its  combination  of  rational  criticism,  historic 
continuity,  ethical  life  and  teaching  and  refined 
and  spiritual  forms  of  worship  is  suited  to 
enlightened  minds.  And  now  that  that  body 
for  the  first  time  in  its  history  has  entered  upon 
a  period  of  organization  and  missionary  effort, 
we  may  look  with  certainty  for  a  vast  and  rapid 
increase  in  its  power  and  influence.  All  things 
considered,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  greatest 
religious  needs  of  the  largest  number  of  pro- 
gressive people  in  our  America  are  met  by  that 
Unitarian  affirmation. 

The  birth  of  the  Free  Religious  Association, 
however,  and  of  similar  movements,  bear  witness 
to  the  fact  that  there  are  men  and  women  who  hold 
a  pure  and  simple  Theistic  concept  of  the  Uni- 
verse, a  Morality  based  upon  common  human 
experience  and  a  worship  of  the  Highest  with 
no  required  prefix,  Christian  or  other ! 

Lastly  come  those  who  in  Ethical  Culture 
Societies  not  only  put  their  bond  of  union  in 
these  abstract  forms  of  speech,  but  refrain 
from  public  Worship,  and  discard  all  theological 
affirmations. 

To  my  thought  the  varied  organization  of  the 
Liberal  element  in  Religion  along  these  three 
lines  is  both  right  and  useful. 


FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION.  10$ 

Within  the  Evangelical  Christian  body  analysis 
and  differentiation  have  been  carried  indeed  to 
their  ultimate  ends ;  often  to  a  repulsive 
and  wasteful  extreme.  It  is  time  for  the 
main  army  of  Christianity  to  synthesize,  to 
harmonize,  to  combine  in  a  mutual  benefit 
"Trust"  which  shall  at  once  broaden  and 
strengthen  its  position.  But  the  natural,  un- 
dogmatic,  "  radical "  or  "  Root "  element  in 
Religion  has  only  so  lately  begun  to  express 
itself  in  Christendom  that  it  would  be  quite 
outside  the  usual  law  of  growth  if  it  could,  at 
first,  unite  all  sensitive  to  its  influence  in  one 
bond  of  organization. 

The  Friend  who  has  opened  for  us  this  Re- 
ligious opportunity  of  Bell  St.  Chapel  occupied 
a  somewhat  unique  position  in  the  Liberal  Faith. 
He  stood  with  the  worshiping  Theists  both 
inside  and  outside  the  Unitarian  body.  But  he 
wished  to  bear  neither  the  Unitarian  nor  the 
Christian  name.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  did  he 
feel  able  conscientiously  to  accept  the  abstract 
Bond  of  Union  which  the  Free  Religious  position 
asserts.  He  was  not  only  a  worshiping  Theist, 
he  was  a  Theist  of  creedal  affirmation.  He 
believed  in  a  Church  of  the  Living  God,  and  he 
thought  such  a  Church  should  not  only  assume 
God  in  Service  of  Praise,  it  should  declare  Him, 
and  allegiance  to  Him,  in  basis  of  organization. 
To  Mr.  Eddy,  lack  of  such  Theistic  delaration  in 


I06  FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION. 

the  Bond  of  Fellowship,  made  Worship  less 
consistent,  and  was  a  treason  to  Religion  itself. 
I  do  not  feel  on  this  point  as  our  Friend  did. 
To  me  the  position  in  the  Liberal  Religious 
world,  not  most  practically,  but  most  philosophic- 
ally strong  is  that  of  a  citizen  of  the  World's 
Temples  whose  sentiment  soars  in  all  higher 
forms  of  aspiration  known  to  men,  but  who  so 
separates  religious  sentiment  from  dogma  that 
his  chosen  bond  of  union  with  others  is  as 
impersonal  and  abstract  an  allegiance  to  the 
Best  in  Life  as  can  be  framed.  Hence  I  cannot 
share  Mr.  Eddy's  philosophical  objection  to  the 
Free  Religious  Society's  basis  of  organization. 
But  Liberal  Religious  Societies  with  the  Theistic 
affirmation  in  both  creed  and  worship  (such  a 
double  affirmation  as  Mr.  Eddy  wished  made 
here  in  this  place),  may  have  strength  of  local 
influence,  warmth  of  attraction  and  a  sufficient 
breadth  of  union.  And  for  the  sake  of  this 
broad  and  practical  usefulness  I  gladly  do  what 
in  me  lies  to  help  start  here  a  Church  of  the 
Universal  Fatherhood  which  shall  in  prose  of 
creed,  as  well  as  in  poetry  of  worship,  declare  its 
belief  in  God,  and  its  purpose  of  service  to  man. 
And  my  Ethical  Culture  Brother,  to  whom 
such  personalized  conceptions  are  forbidden, 
alike  in  prose  and  in  poetry,  what  shall  I  say  of 
him  }  He  has  stripped  from  the  ancient  Temple 
of  Faith  its  Altar,  as  well  as  all  adornment  of 


FELLOWSHIP    IN   RELIGION.  IO7 

mythical  picture  and  allegory.  And  he  has 
inscribed  on  its  bare  walls  the  four-square 
legend: — "Learn  Truth.  Teach  Truth.  Be  Good. 
Do  Good." 

What  shall  I  say  of  him  ?  That  I  am  heartily 
glad  he  has  built  a  place  where  he  can  feel  at 
home  and  where  thousands  to  whom  the  Churchly 
element  is  not  attractive  may  learn  to  revere  the 
"  Sacred  Ought  in  Man."  If  I  see,  as  I  think  I 
do,  that  when  he  reaches  in  glowing  speech  the 
heights  of  Goodness  and  Truth  he  touches  the 
heart  of  an  Infinite  Love  also,  to  which  our 
hearts  are  so  allied  that  none  but  poetic  Person- 
alities can  name  It,  I  am  neither  grieved  nor 
vexed  that  he  does  not  see  it. 

If  to  strip  his  Religious  Purpose  of  garments 
of  beauty  I  love,  makes  him  feel  stronger — as 
an  athlete  preparing  for  the  fight — to  war 
against  Wrong,  that  is  his  affair ;  and  so  long 
as  he  works  in  harmony  with  that  **  Power  not 
ourselves  which  makes  for  Righteousness,"  I 
am  glad  to  feel  kinship  with  him.  And  I  believe 
that  now  we  are  at  the  point  in  thought  and 
morals  where  he  can  help  in  ways  many  of  us 
cannot. 

Standing  where  I  do  in  Religion  I  can  Fellow- 
ship all  who  will  Fellowship  me.  Is  the  name 
Religion  vaster  and  yet  dearer  to  me  than  its 
"  given  "  name  Christian  ?  Truly  it  is.  But  if  my 
Brother  on  the  Left  puts  into  his  word  Christian 


I08  FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION. 

all  I  mean  by  my  word  Religion,  as  so  many  do, 
shall  I  wince  when  he  talks,  or  think  the  less 
of  his  brave  and  beautiful  words  ?  I  trust 
not.  If  he  can  stand  my  want  of  a  surname  I 
can  surely  bear  with  his  filial  love  for  our  com- 
mon family  inheritance  of  faith.  Do  the  words, 
Truth,  Right,  Love,  standing  all  alone,  seem 
nobler  in  completeness,  more  far-reaching  in 
significance,  than  with  any  prefix,  even  Christian? 
Truly  they  do  to  me.  But  if  my  Brother  asks  me 
to  join  him  in  Truthseeking  and  in  Right-living 
and  in  Loving  helpfulness,  I  am  not  troubled 
that  he  always  calls  such  "  Christian  work." 
There  is  so  much  more  in  that  prefix  Christian 
than  has  ever  yet  been  lived  out,  that  it  is  more 
a  question  whether  I  am  worthy  of  such  a  badge 
than  whether  my  brother  makes  a  mistake  in 
wearing  it ! 

On  the  other  hand,  do  the  words,  God, 
Soul,  Religion,  Immortality,  all  the  root  words 
of  Worship,  seem  dear  to  me  and  right  to 
use,  however  they  may  have  been  surcharged 
with  superstitious  meanings  or  coarse  concep- 
tions .•*  Aye,  truly  they  do.  And  my  place  is 
with  those  who  can  no  more  help  giving  wing  to 
the  Spiritual  Imagination  than  a  flower  can  help 
turning  toward  the  sun.  But  if  my  Brother  on 
the  Right  shrinks  from  using  any  of  these 
words,  and  limits  himself  to  such  literal 
phrasings  of  man's  nobler  nature  as  the  logical 


FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION.  ICQ 

faculty  alone  suggests,  what  of  that  ?  If  he  puts 
a  reverent  Silence — not  a  boisterous  and  rude 
outcry — but  a  reverent  Silence  in  place  of  my 
Worship,  and  if  moreover  he  listens  in  that 
reverent  Silence  closely  and  tenderly  for  the 
cry  of  human  need  and  the  Word  of  human 
helpfulness,  then,  if  he  can  endure  my  prayer,  I 
can  be  glad  of  his  Silence  if  it  helps  him  more 
than  speech ! 

Fellowship  in  Liberal  Religion,  my  friends, 
goes  both  ways,  or  it  is  not  true  Fellowship. 

Fellowship  in  Religion  is  to  keep  the  Unity 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  Peace  all  around 
the  World  of  Faith  and  Service. 

Fellowship  within  our  own  Religious  Home  is 
that  near  and  dear  tie  of  those  who  believe  so 
much  alike  that  they  can  be  one  in  all  things  of 
word  and  deed.  This  Fellowship,  to  be  truly 
helpful,  must  be  upon  the  large  and  not  the 
small  elements  of  belief  and  of  service. 

Fellowship  without  our  own  Religious  Home 
is  sympathetic  understanding  of  those  from 
whom  we  differ,  constant  effort  to  join  on  with 
them,  and  keep  company,  where  we  can,  all  the 
more  that  at  some  roadways  we  must  unclasp 
hands  and  walk  apart  for  Truth's  sake. 

Fellowship  in  Religion  demands  of  no  man 
that  he  make  himself  a  *•  mush  of  concessions." 
Still  less  that  he  blur  real  and  far-reaching  dis- 
tinctions for  the  sake  of  keeping  step  with  the 


no  FELLOWSHIP    IN    RELIGION. 

main  army.  Least  of  all  that  he  be-juggle  with 
words,  or  trifle  with  austere  sincerity,  just  to 
stay  where  it  is  snug  and  warm.  No  man  has  a 
right  to  be  free-handed  in  hospitality  when  he  is 
in  debt  and  cannot  feed  his  own  family.  And 
an  all-round  Fellowship  in  Religion  is  neither 
just  nor  honest  until  we  have  bought  and  paid 
for  our  own  Household  of  Faith  by  strenuous 
search  for  our  own  religion  and  sincere  speech 
about  it. 

First  find  your  own  place  of  Worship  and  of 
Service. 

Then,  where  you  stand,  all  you  can,  speaking 
your  Religious  Truth  in  love  as  in  sincerity, 
doing  your  Religious  Deed  in  fraternal  feeling 
as  in  personal  faithfulness,  join  effort  with  who- 
so also  loves  Truth  and  would  do  the  Right 
wherever  your  hands  can  clasp  each  other's. 

This,  I  take  it,  is  the  rule  of  Fellowship  in 
Religion. 

This  is  the  Fellowship  in  Religion  I  must  ever 
seek. 

This  is  the  Fellowship  in  Religion  I  hope  may 
be  manifest  in  this  place. 


INDEX 

TO 

Quotations  from  the  Writings  of 
James  eddy. 


Pages. 
Man's  Ideal  of  God 8-14 

Gratitude  and  Trust  in  the  Powers  Above 19-25 

How  Religions  Grow 37-42 

Reason  in  Keligion 56-63 

Man's  Freedom  and  Responsibility;    or,  Character  in 

Religion 76-83 

Fellowship  in  Religion 94  -  97 

Allusions  to  Bell  St.  Chapel  and  to  Mr.  Eddy's  desires 
respecting  the  Religious  Organization  receiving  the 

benefit  of  the  Chapel-Trust 

10,  12,  13,  21,  25,  37,  41,  42,  56,  62,  81,  94,  96 


7?C7^ 


TV  7?  4-': 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


